


Darkness behind the City's Walls

by listenforthelove



Series: The Number is Six [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts, No. 6 - Asano Atsuko
Genre: Archive warning as per No. 6 canon, Crossover, Gen, Gen for this part but any hinting at nezushi and soriku is definitely intentional, Spoilers for No. 6 novels and Kingdom Hearts canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-05
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 00:06:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 42,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4725314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/listenforthelove/pseuds/listenforthelove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sora, Riku and Kairi receive a letter from the King, asking them to check out a world that was almost destroyed entirely, but managed to avert total oblivion. One of its rebuilt cities is now considered an utopia, but recent Heartless activity has been reason for caution and suspicion.<br/>The trio decides to check out the matter, meeting some interesting new friends along the way who have their own reasons to suspect the city of No. 6.</p><p>Crossover between Kingdom Hearts and No. 6 (novels/manga), spoilers galore for both. Archive warning applies to No. 6 canon events.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Destiny Islands

**Author's Note:**

> I FINALLY FINISHED IT I DID IIIIT   
>  -coughs-
> 
>  
> 
> Hello and welcome to the fic I've been overly invested in for two years!  
> (This is also the reason why the notes are so long, but please bear with me for a bit. I'll keep it down for the next chapters, promise.)
> 
> See, at first it was just going to be a cute little one-shot of Sora and Riku stumbling into the underground room, but then I was like, 'why not rewrite the No. 6 canon but include the Kingdom Hearts trio?', because apparently I hate fun. The initial reason was that I saw many parallels between Shion and Sora and Nezumi and Riku, but then I also threw in Safu and Kairi and well. It kind of escalated from there and now we're here.
> 
> I did my best to stick to the No. 6 canon in the novels and manga, so if you've only seen the anime, you might be a bit confused here and there as they're different in places. Fear not, the KH trio has no idea what's going on either for the most part. (Neither do I anymore. For all the info dumps we get, some details are surprisingly vague in No. 6 if you start focusing on them.)
> 
> Since most of the viewpoint characters are from Kingdom Hearts, I made a little intro post for those of you who are only familiar to No. 6: you can [find it here on tumblr](http://listenforthelove.tumblr.com/post/128400469681/the-number-is-six-introduction-to-kingdom-hearts). I hope that helps, but otherwise feel free to poke me!  
> The Kingdom Hearts part is set straight after Dream Drop Distance and takes its own course from there, because I don't know what's gonna happen in KH3 in terms of plot, but I am guessing it's not this.
> 
> Also, this is part 1 of 2! There's no real shipping in this part, but any hinting is definitely intentional and will get rolling in part 2. Which will hopefully take less long to write, since I do intend to finish the whole thing before KH3 comes out. There will be a time skip between part 1 and 2, so no direct sequel.
> 
> I finished all chapters and will post chapter 1 and 2 tomorrow on No. 6 day; the remaining chapters will follow on September 7, Shion's birthday.
> 
> MAJOR MAJOR thanks to pretty much all of my friends, who let me whine about this fic constantly and even helped me out in many places. Thanks to Meo and Yuneyn in particular for reading my first draft and giving me valuable feedback, and to River and Solyn and Pirra and Ahiku for letting me whine incessantly about this, and to everyone who has been encouraging me to finish this, because I don't know if I would have if it weren't for you guys, so thanks!!
> 
> Thanks for reading this far, and now off we go!

“Aw, man!” Sora knelt down next to his keyblade, looking up with an awkward grin to the person who’d just disarmed him.

Kairi sniggered and retreated her Destiny’s Embrace, with the sneaking suspicion Sora might not have gone all out against her. “Told you I wouldn’t go easy on you.” She stretched out her hand and pulled Sora back to his feet. “But, fair’s fair, you’ve also been practicing with Riku today.”

“Hm,” Sora agreed, brushing the sand off his knees with his free hand. “Where is Riku, anyway?”

He had a point. Riku had been watching their training session from the Paopu tree, but his place was abandoned now. Neither of them had seen him leave, as caught up as they’d been in their friendly sparring.

“Don’t go blame your loss on me now, Sora.” The missing case was quickly solved as Riku walked the bridge that covered the main island with the inlet, carrying a bottle in his right hand with the setting sun reflecting on it. He grinned at his friend. “It’s not our fault if you’re slacking off.”

“Hey!” But Sora laughed back at him as he got up to meet him halfway. “What have you got there?”

“Another letter.”

That was enough for Kairi to join the two boys, leaning in curiously. “Another world?”

“Yes. It’s from Mi- Majesty. I mean, the King. For all three of us.”

Kairi sniggered. “I see you’ve already read it.”

At least Riku had the decency to look a little embarrassed. “Yes, well, had to make sure it made its way to the right person, didn’t I?” He tilted the bottle so that the rolled-up letter fell out and handed it over to Sora, who stood closest to him. “Here.”

 

_‘Sora, Riku, Kairi,_

_I know you guys are busy with your training, but I have a request for you on behalf of Master Yen Sid._

_One of the worlds out there has recently survived its near destruction. We thought it had fallen into darkness completely, but it returned and actually seemed untouched by darkness. However, Heartless have been showing up from time to time lately, exclusively in the last of its six remaining cities. This city called No. 6 is considered an utopia, it should be entirely at peace. Any Heartless activity at all is dangerous, as they could take down this world as yet._

_I would like to ask you three to check on this situation and clear the city of whatever is lurking inside that draws in the Heartless. Be on your guard at all times, even if the city might seem safe._

_Good luck, and thank you three._

_P.S.: do me a favor and stick together in this, won’t ya?_

_\- Mickey’_

“So it’s another mission,” Sora cheerfully said. “And a new world, too, cool!”

It wasn’t the first time King Mickey sent them a letter, though they were scarce in between as they were all busy training. Kairi was determined to catch up with the boys as soon as she could, making up for the time she’d spent waiting on the islands for them to return. She was entirely done with waiting by this point.

Meanwhile, Riku had his duties as a keyblade Master, which mostly meant he was going places from time to time when not training for himself, and Sora was, well, Sora. He went to other worlds only to get distracted by whatever he stumbled upon this time, be it another mission or helping someone out. He was technically still in training, though he could and would take on Riku in battle quite easily. Sora would be fine.

They met on their island, to catch up with each other and sometimes to train together, as had been the case this afternoon. Once every blue moon, one of them brought a message from their allies, but it had been a while since the message had arrived in a bottle. It had also been a while since they’d had a mission assigned to the three of them. They could be counted on one hand, and all had been on worlds they’d visited before. Luckily so – Sora truly had made a lot of friends on other worlds, as it turned out, and they made great allies.

In short, their lives were decidedly different from a couple of years ago, before the night of the storm. And maybe one day, these new days would come to an end as well. They had a big mission ahead of them, but what came after? None of them dared to think about ‘what if we can’t make it’, ‘what if Xehanort wins’. It wasn’t an option. They had win this final battle, simple as that.

For now, they simply weren’t ready yet. They were a keyblade Master and two trainees, who had mostly picked up their skills on the go. The confrontation would come – not now, but soon.

“Guess we should leave, huh?” Sora now said, sounding quite eager at the prospect.

Riku slowly nodded, but not with full conviction. “Guess so. Though it must be something serious, considering he – hey, Sora! Wait up!”

“Last one there has to buy treats!” Sora had already run off, rushing back to the main island to find a good departure spot.

Riku groaned a little and pushed the letter into Kairi’s hands. “Hold this. Sora!”

“Riku, wait for-” Kairi fell silent halfway through her sentence, as Riku had dashed out of earshot within seconds anyway. He’d almost caught up with Sora when the latter took off, still a little unstable with his only recently acquired keyblade armor. Riku followed suit immediately.

And so, Kairi was left behind mere seconds later, a little dumb-founded and King Mickey’s letter still in hand. 

“Okay boys, seriously?” Unsurprisingly, Kairi’s words were directed to empty air and a lone seagull passing by. She sighed and stared at the last line in the letter. “What happened to ‘stick together’? We’ve had this conversation before, let me remind you.” She rolled up the letter and tucked it neatly but firmly in her bag. The city of No. 6, huh.

Kairi looked up to the skies and took a deep breath. The two boys weren’t the only ones on the island with a keyblade and a way out, not anymore, and she was planning on personally informing them of this little fact. “Just you wait until I catch up with you!”


	2. Lost Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi lands in the city of No. 6, but immediately bumps into some trouble regarding their mission. One: Sora and Riku are nowhere in sight. But her problems only begin there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Gee guys I sure love the Destiny Islands trio together!'  
> -proceeds to separate them in the freaking prologue-  
> ... Parallels, you see.
> 
> Well, off we go into the city of No. 6!

King Mickey’s letter had been right on the mark in that the city of No. 6 lay in a world that had seen the brink of destruction. As Kairi approached, the desolate plains that covered the lands became obvious, though there were splashes of trees and bushes here and there, showing that the world was slowly recovering.

The city itself wasn’t hard to find. It stood in the middle of the wasteland, a tall building in its center shimmering silver in the light of the setting sun, surrounded by a tidy forest. Encircling the city was a wall, though it was carefully hidden in most places. Still, from the sky, it was easy to mentally fill in the rest of the wall that showed in the west, from where it became covered in woods.

Kairi looked around, trying to find a good spot to land unseen while simultaneously crossing her fingers the boys had at least thought that far ahead. She had no idea where to look for them, but surely, they would land _some_ where inside the city, wouldn’t they?

She got a little closer, wondering if she should land in the dead center of the city or maybe on its outskirts. The letter had warned them to be on their guard, but you could take that either way. The city center might be the safest place, but it could just as easily be the center of the Heartless infestation. Kairi had been training vigorously, but she doubted she could take on a mission that had been intended for the three of them. Plus, there was that whole ‘stay out of sight’ deal that Sora had sheepishly grinned about when Riku had brought it up before…

 

Kairi swept some loose twigs from her hair that had somehow managed to get under her helmet in landing, and praised herself lucky that she had picked a quiet spot between the trees, judging by the lack of people around her. That hadn’t been her proudest moment.

She retreated her armor with a swift press on her arm pad, brushed herself up a little, and took a minute took check out her landing spot.

She had landed in a patch of woods and bushes, somewhere away from the city center, as she could see its tall building in the distance. The trees around her had lost most of their foliage, meaning it was probably past fall here already. A sharp, cold wind that tugged at her hair confirmed Kairi’s suspicion. It was evening now, the world around her a navy blue color, not yet dark but close enough. She curled her hands into fist, on her guard and prepared to summon the keyblade should the need arise. She wasn’t downright afraid of the dark, she knew it wasn’t all bad. But she also knew what could be lurking in it – for better and for worse.

It really was cold. Forget fall, it was probably winter already. Kairi shivered, silently cursing how used she had gotten to living on the islands despite not having been born there. Sora had enthusiastically shared his stories about snowy mountain tops and a place called Christmas Town, but had conveniently left out how much better dressed he had been for the climate at the time. Magic clothes sounded good right about now. Or barring that, maybe a couple of Heartless to defeat, to warm up a little.

None of  those bothered to show up, however. Instead, it was almost eerily silent around her as she left the woods and found herself in a less shiny part of the city. The buildings were low and didn’t seem to be in very good state, a little grubby and in some cases to the point of decay. It didn’t smell all that nicely, either, and Kairi squeezed her fist just a little tighter on instinct.

If anything, Sora and Riku weren’t around, or at least not anywhere in close vicinity.  She didn’t quite dare to call out for them yet, as there was no telling who or what else might hear her instead. Kairi was functionally on her own for now.

Right. She could handle that. First things first: find those two and give them a piece of her mind about this whole ‘taking off without you once again’ business they had pulled on her. That did bring her back to her previous point, however, as it was a little hard to give them a piece of her mind if they weren’t around to listen to it. Kind of diminished the effect, really.

 

Kairi didn’t have a lot of time to come up with a strategy after that. Even if she had, it would have probably been pretty close to ‘asking around and be on her guard’, but at least that had given her some kind of plan to act on.

However, she was found herself first. Her reflexes had gotten quick enough to look up in time, but she was still cornered by two men in uniform. One seized her by the arm, but she pulled away forcefully.

“Excuse us, young miss,” his partner said, “those under the age of eighteen are prohibited from being outdoors at this time.”

“Ah – I, I got lost,” Kairi quickly said, which was basically the truth, anyway. So these probably were some kind of officers, then. They didn’t exactly make her feel at ease. It wasn’t the sense of darkness coming from them, but something close to it.  

“I’m going to have to ask you for your name and ID card, miss.”

“Oh. Well, I’m Kairi,” she offered with a weak smile. “Eh. Card?” Quick, quick. “I don’t – I don’t have it with me, actually.”

“I see.” Both faces looking down at her grew stern as the first speaker continued. “Your Citizenship Number?”

“I – what?”

“This is the city of No. 6. Roaming its streets without an ID card and without producing your Citizenship Number is punishable by law.”

Wait, what? “I’m not from around here! I was just passing through, I didn’t know…” Kairi stopped in the middle of her sentence as the two men nodded at each other in agreement, not liking this development at all. She backed away slowly, felt the power in her hand intensifying. One flick of the wrist, and…

The man who had grabbed her arm earlier tried to seize her again, this time with a lot more force. Kairi was ahead of him now, though.

The flowery tip of Destiny’s Embrace pushed the man aside, while Kairi held a tight grip on the weapon as she kept him at distance. “Do not touch me,” she said, voice low and hopefully sufficiently threatening. She could hold her own if the need to fight arose, she knew it. They weren’t Heartless – just normal people, but that arguably made it worse to fight them. She had seen what keyblades could do to people. “I promise you will regret it.”

“Put the weapon down.” That was the other man, and Kairi quickly readjusted her position to have them both in her line of sight. He seemed less impressed than his partner. “Or _you_ will regret it.”

“Nice try.” Kairi backed away further, fully prepared to fight should the need arise. So much for discretion and no meddling. “Look, I just got lost, there is no need to threaten me.” She had tried to keep an eye on both of them, but hadn’t been fast enough. A distinct ‘click’ behind her was enough to make her turn around and suddenly find a gun pointed at her.

“Nice weapon you’ve got there,” the man holding it said, grinning viciously. It was the first of the two, who had tried to grab her twice now. “Give it up, now. We have a use for it. For you – not so much. Vermin.”

 “Well, that’s a little harsh. Freeze!” A well-aimed flick of her keyblade, and a blast of ice hurled to the gun. Right on the mark: the man dropped his weapon immediately upon the icy contact, a cry in surprise as his hands were hit as well. Kairi smirked to herself. “Cool it down a bit, won’t you?”

The man grunted and stooped down to retrieve his weapon. Kairi was watching him from aside, keyblade still aimed as the gun had been at her own face moments before.

That was a mistake. The other man seized her free arm and crashed her into him with brute force,  her arm twisting painfully in the motion.  Another ‘click’, and another gun was pointed against her chin this time. “Put. The weapon. Down.”

“Fine.” Kairi scoffed, but dropped her keyblade as instructed.

“Good girl. Maybe we won’t have to hurt you _that_ much, after all.” The gun was still pointed against her chin, the metal scraping her skin. The man’s idea of ‘hurt’ seemed to be pretty different from Kairi’s.

Meanwhile, the first man had composed himself and quickly seized Destiny’s Embrace from the floor, studying it appreciatively for a couple of seconds. He opened his mouth to say something, and right at that moment, the keyblade disappeared in a flash, recognizing it wasn’t in the hands of a worthy wielder.

Kairi had anticipated it, and held a tight grip on her weapon as it reappeared in her free hand. “Oops.” She managed to crack a grin, though it was probably more like a grimace considering she was still being held rather painfully. “Look at that, huh.”

Her reflexes were by far not on the level of a full-fledged Keyblade Master, but she had the element of surprise to work in her advantage. Besides, no man expected a girl to stomp on his toes and push him with her elbow after just having received her magical weapon. She took her stance, keyblade in hands. “Here’s an idea. Why don’t _you_ put those guns away?”

To her surprise, the man who had held her just now nodded – but it wasn’t in answer to her question.

She belatedly realized she had turned her back on the other man, and that was a mistake.

Kairi felt a shock in her neck, followed by a sudden numbness in her entire body. It was similar to being hit by a Thunder spell, except those never knocked her out flat. Right now, though, she was only conscious long enough to notice the world around her blurring, the ground getting closer and closer.

 

“Hm…”

She was moving, she noticed that much as she finally managed to crack open her eyes again. The world around her was still very blurry, and it seemed to tremble a little. It was warmer than she remembered, and she didn’t feel a breeze anymore.

Kairi could feel herself slipping away again, and so she concentrated to the best of her abilities, sought out the tiniest remainder of magic she could still feel inside her. Concentrate, focus… “Cure,” she whispered under her breath. It was weak, but it was enough. The healing spell shimmered green behind her closed eyelids, and she felt the lethargy and numbness stream away.

Now that she could really focus again, she noticed her surroundings. First, she was indeed inside, in what she suspected was a vehicle of some sort considering the trembling movement and the small confined space. She was seated on a dark leather bench herself. There was a dark shield in front of her, presumably separating her from whoever was driving the vehicle. Oh, right. Those two men – they must have taken her, after all. Then she was being escorted to, what? A police office? Prison, even?

Secondly, Kairi wasn’t alone. There was a girl slumped next to her, unconscious and half slid off her seat. The sleeve of her coat was torn and a button was missing. Her short, dark hair was a bit messy and scattered over her face, which was contorted in a way that suggested she had not just fallen asleep peacefully.

Very carefully, Kairi shuffled in her seat to get closer. There was no sound from beyond the shield, and so she hoped that those men hadn’t noticed she was awake yet. There was no telling to what they would do to her, considering they hadn’t had qualms about pulling out a gun and – do whatever had caused her to lose consciousness for so long. She had gotten used to taking a beating or a stray magic spell or two, but nothing quite like this.  

“Hey,” she whispered, close to the other girl’s ear now. “You awake?”

No response came, though Kairi hadn’t honestly expected one. She sighed to herself. Her magic was gone for now, and with her current condition, it would take a while to get back. She had run out of Elixirs, but she still had some Hi-Potions on her. There was no telling if it would work, but they were easier to get by. Might as well give it a shot.

It didn’t even occur to her _not_ to wake up the other girl – she was clearly not here by free will, much like Kairi. And much like Kairi, she probably hadn’t done much wrong, either. If anyone was not to be trusted, it was the two men who had thrown her in here.

Kairi rummaged through her bag until she found the item she was looking for, and very gently removed the cap to avoid spilling.

It was still quite a trick to open the other girl’s mouth, considering she was half-leaning off her seat and the vehicle was still in motion. At last, Kairi managed, and she tipped the bottle against the girl’s lips, hoping she’d eventually swallow the potion. She didn’t. Kairi sighed again and tilted her head as well as she could, praying this would get the cure into her system.

Finally, the other girl sputtered and coughed once, twice.

Some very long seconds later, her eyelids fluttered open.

 

*

 

_Shion?_

The name had been on her lips for the last she could remember, and it was the first in her mind now. She wasn’t sure what had happened to her exactly, but Shion was her constant.

Something was in her throat – that must have woken her up. Panicked, she accidentally swallowed most of the substance, before her bodily responses caught up with her and she coughed a couple of times. The substance didn’t taste bitter, which was usually a good sign, but didn’t guarantee it wasn’t a toxin of some kind. Her mind had trouble providing her with what had happened last, but the sense of danger was still in her subconscious.

Gradually, her mind started to clear. It was a very strange sensation, much faster than she could account for. She felt like being jerked awake into immediate and full consciousness. Her eyes were the last to catch up, and by the time Safu could open her eyes, the world around her had cleared from the fog she now remembered last seeing.

“Shion?” she asked, this time out loud. Simultaneously, she realized how preposterous that notion was. He hadn’t been here, it was the reason she had gone out of the city in the first place. West Block. That was it. She had been on her way to the West Block before she…

“Ah, sorry.” A voice responded, but it wasn’t Shion’s. Of course it wasn’t. It was a girl’s, gentle and soft-spoken, and almost a whisper in volume. “Try to be quiet, I’m not sure if they can hear us. I’m Kairi.”

  “Who…” Safu trailed off as she realized she wasn’t sure who she meant herself. Who are you? Who are ‘they’? Her memory hadn’t yet returned in full, but she was fairly convinced she had not encountered a girl named Kairi before.

She looked next to her now, noticed the girl who had just introduced herself and found her to be of peculiar appearance. It wasn’t necessarily the color of her eyes, which was a startling shade of blue Safu hadn’t really seen much in No. 6, at least. It was her general appearance. The girl’s – Kairi’s – red hair slightly brushed over her mostly bare shoulders, and overall, her dress was short and not at all appropriate for the cold season. Kairi did indeed seem to be shivering ever so slightly, despite the fact they were inside.

Which was another question, truly. Where _were_ they?

And just like that, Safu had a flash of memories returning to her, beyond those focused on Shion. The Security Bureau officials. The suspicious questions, Safu’s attempts to escape, to tell Shion’s mother to stay away – the shock she had felt in her neck before everything became a blur.

She reached for her now bare neck in a reflex, a little too fast. The muscles in her arm ached dully with the movement.

“I’m not sure, I just woke up myself,” Kairi now said, still talking in that whispering voice. “I think I was kidnapped by those two men. You were here already when I woke up. You don’t remember?”

“I do.” Safu kept her voice soft this time. “Those Bureau officials…” They had asked for her name and identification, made sure they had the right person before taking her away. Then why was there another girl with her in this – car, presumably? “Are you an elite?” she softly asked, though the possibility seemed slim. They would probably have met before.

“Where I’m from?” Kairi asked in return. “Depends, I’m still in training. Why?”

“Why would they…” Safu stopped her sentence when their surroundings stopped moving. They must indeed be inside the car, as the vehicle was still trembling slightly. The engine had not been shut off yet. The driver was waiting for something. Had he heard them?

Kairi muttered something under her breath and reached over Safu’s lap, trying to get to the door next to her. It was predictably locked, and she clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Hang on.”

Safu still had many questions, but they all evaporated and were replaced by a much more urgent question when there was a sudden flash and Kairi leant back with a rather large, colorful weapon in hand, pointing it at the door next to Safu. _What in the world was going on?_

 _Click_. That sounded suspiciously like a door being unlocked.

Kairi leant over Safu again, trying to find the handle in the darkness of the car. Right at that moment, the car started to move again, at a calmer pace this time. Safu was close enough to see Kairi’s hand wrap itself around the almost hidden handle, close enough for Kairi to seize her arm with her other hand. “Now.”

The door opened.

 Safu was pulled out along with Kairi, who managed to kick the door shut behind them as the car rode on and both girls rolled on the ground, Safu banging her head rather painfully on the floor. She pressed her eyes shut for a moment and waited for the stars to disappear.

It was no longer dark. They were inside, a big, empty space with plenty of artificial light to battle the darkness that must have long fallen outside by this point. They had landed on a concrete floor, meant for entrance other than on foot, judging by the slight tire tracks Safu noted under her hands as she tried to push herself up.

She looked up in time to see Kairi wince next to her, rubbing the arm she had used to wield her weapon as she had seemingly landed on it. In the bright lights, Safu could see the details of the weapon better – its point ended in flowers, not sharp at all, and in fact more resembled a rather oversized key.

Safu’s brain told her to mistrust the strange girl, whom she had never met before and was armed. To the best of Safu’s knowledge, she could be a criminal. It would explain why she had been arrested by Bureau officials at the very least, if only Safu hadn’t been taken by force herself.

“Who _are_ you?” Safu settled on asking.

“Kairi. I think I mentioned that.” She smiled, a genuinely kind smile as she pulled Safu to her feet. “But I don’t think I caught your name.”

 “Safu.” It was out before she realized it, distracted as she was taking in the environment. The walls were off-white and devoid of any windows,  but the car they had jumped from was disappearing in the distance driving towards a gate. Behind them, there was another gate – sealed tightly shut after they must have come in through there. This must be some kind of entrance area for vehicles, to a large building. Of course. “Correctional Facility,” she whispered, which caught Kairi’s attention.

“You know where we are?”

“I am fairly confident, yes.” It had been an instinct, mostly, but Safu figured she was right. It was the one destination that made the most sense for her to be brought to, as it had been obvious she had not been taken for a friendly chat. Safu didn’t know her crime, but she knew that it could only bring her to the Correctional Facility if the city had determined her to be a criminal. She also knew that there was no way out of that very place.

But the Correctional Facility was outside of the city wall, in the West Block. She was close to Shion. “We need to get out of here.”

It was impossible, of course, but Safu couldn’t accept that, not when there was still an opportunity as they had escaped formal admittance for the moment. Not when there was still a chance she could find her way out and find Shion.

She grabbed for her ID card by instinct, as she had done more than once after leaving No. 6, always thinking the better of it before actually making a call. She hadn’t contacted Shion then, and she couldn’t contact him any longer now. It was either stay inside the Facility, or go out and find Shion. No matter what, she was outside of the city walls.

Kairi had noticed her movement, and gave her a curious look. “What’s that?”

“It’s… Nothing.” The card fell to the ground, and Safu’s heel crushed it almost laughably easily. She highly doubted it was enough to permanently deactivate the card, but at least it would no longer be able to give her location away, should she make it out of this hall and leave it behind.

Her mind was drawn back to more current matters as she looked over to the girl next to her, the decorative key-like weapon still in hand. “I would like to return that question.”

“What… Oh.” Kairi smirked a bit uneasily as she caught Safu’s stare. “This, you mean? Ehm, it can help us, I think. We should probably get out of here, you’re right – the Correctional Facility, you called this place?”

Safu blinked in surprise. “Yes. We just came out of an escort car, there is no doubt that we were under some kind of arrest. Therefore, it stands to reason we were being taken to the Correctional Facility.” These were simple facts, but the red-headed girl was staring at her as if she was hearing the words for the first time.

“Really? Not to a prison?”

Safu wasn’t entirely sure why this short exchange was the metaphorical straw, considering the peculiar weapon the other girl wielded and the general air she was giving off with the way she dressed and the way she spoke. It had always been very clear this Kairi was not from No. 6, but now she had made it clear she did not know about the Correctional Facility either. Where had she come from? She had ended up in the same vehicle as Safu, somewhere on the way here. If this Kairi wasn’t from inside No. 6, the only other possibility had to be the West Block, but that was where the Facility lay. Where _had_ she come from?

“I don’t believe you answered my first question in full,” Safu settled on saying.

“Which one… oh. But I did tell you my name.”

“It wasn’t just a matter of learning your name, I caught that the first time. My comprehension and memorization skills are quite good enough for that, thank you.”

To her surprise, Kairi laughed a little – more like a giggle, really. At any rate, the sound bounced off the empty walls, far too loudly for the quietude of the place. “Yes, I gathered. Safu. What do you say we first try and get out of here? I don’t know about you, but I don’t really like this place. Besides, I’m on a mission.” She winked cheerfully. “Sounds like you are, too, huh?”

“I’m looking for someone.”

“That makes two of us, then.” Kairi sighed. “Seriously, once I catch up with those two, they’ve got another thing coming.” The words sounded more directed at herself than at Safu. “Well, first things first, let’s try and open that door, shall we?”

With that, Kairi drew her weapon again, turning it to the now shut gate behind them. She held it in both her hands in full confidence, aiming it as if she were legitimately trying to unlock the door, despite the obvious fact that there wasn’t a keyhole in sight.

Nevertheless, Kairi seemed honestly surprised by the inevitable lack of doors opening. “Huh. That usually works for Sora, that’s not fair. Stay back for a bit,” she said over her shoulder to Safu, who was honestly too intrigued by the girl’s actions at this point to really move. Nothing she did or said made any sense, which was as frustrating as it was interesting.

Kairi now raised her weapon in the sky, still pointing in the general direction of the gate. “Maybe it’s some circuit. Let’s see if some thunder works!”

And without further warning, thunder came – or more accurately, lightning. Safu had to shield her eyes from the sudden flash of light that she thought she saw coming from Kairi’s weapon that moment. Impossible, absolutely impossible.

Yet the blaring alarm that sounded almost instantly was very much reality.

“Oops,” Kairi mouthed, her voice too soft to carry over the alarm.

For a second, Safu had let herself forget where they were, but she realized they had to hurry. She scanned her environment, identified the exits. And there it was: a door next to the gate on the other side, white and unassuming.

“That way.”

“I thought we had to get out?” Kairi’s voice was close to Safu’s ear, close enough for her to hear the words. Despite that, she followed Safu as she made her way to the other side of the hall.

“We do.” Safu broke into a run to cross the final distance. “But that was a gate for vehicles, not people. If there is a door for people to enter, there has to be one for them to leave as well.” The alarm made it hard for her to clear her mind, which was already racing with so many ideas in the first place. Her once organized life had been overthrown in just a couple of days, maybe less. Safu was sure about one thing: she was going to get out of here, and she was going to find Shion. The tricky part was figuring out how to accomplish this two-fold plan. Maybe she was wrong about the door, but if they stayed here, they would be found soon at any rate.

“The old-fashioned way!” Kairi stormed next to her and barged into the door with full force, which opened which such ease that it must not have been locked in the first place. She nearly fell over due to her own speed.

Safu caught up with her quickly and shut the door behind them, blocking out most of the alarm. They had to get going, move ahead. If she had been right, this was the only entrance to the hall they had just come from, and any guards would come through this same door.

The hallway they entered was surprisingly dark, a sharp contrast with the entrance hall. It was silent – too silent, almost. The alarm was hard to miss, and this was the Correctional Facility. There had never been a prison outbreak, and there was no reason to doubt this was in part due to the security installed. However, there was nobody else down the hallway, nobody they bumped into as they ran, taking the first corner they could find to get out of the direct path to the hall. It didn’t make sense. Granted, it wasn’t the first thing today that didn’t make any sense, but it was the first thing familiar to her that was out of place. No. 6 and losing its sense of security?

A shuffling in the dark distracted Safu from her thoughts. It was more like a scratch, as if an animal was clawing against the walls. Was it a trick of the eyes, or was the hallway getting darker by the minute? There were no windows, and the lights above her head were starting to flicker now.

She heard footsteps. Light ones, too light for people and especially too light for armed forces. Still, they weren’t alone, and Safu couldn’t see what lied beyond the corner in the dark. She shuffled back with her back against the wall by instinct.

Kairi seemed less intimidated and more – annoyed. She hissed through her teeth and readied her weapon again, aiming it in expectance of whatever was coming for them. “Didn’t think they’d find me, first,” Safu caught her muttering, and that was the last she caught before chaos ensued.

There was another flash from Kairi’s weapon, less overwhelmingly bright and more like a flame that lit up the darkness. It was just a couple of seconds, but it was long enough for Safu to spot the shadows, small and inhuman and with long claws that were reaching out to them. When the flame went out, Safu spotted yellow orbs in the air – eyes? No, shadows didn’t have eyes, that was preposterous, but…

“Get off!” Kairi yelled, swinging her weapon around and hitting at least two of the shadows, which should be another impossibility as shadows did not have corporal mass. The loud ‘thud’ with which they hit the wall was real enough, however.

Safu backed away further, but she wasn’t fast enough. One of the creatures had managed to grab a hold of her leg, and its claws were digging into her flesh. A cold washed over her, a sense of intense dread before she caught a hold of herself and kicked it off with her free leg. “What are they?” she managed to ask, her voice much less stable than she’d hoped.

“Heartless,” Kairi answered, gritting in determination. “Run before they get to you, I’ll hold them off.”

Safu had no intention of running and leaving Kairi behind, however. Stranger or not, the girl did have a weapon that seemed rather effective, and she seemed familiar with these creatures, which was more than Safu had to admit she knew. She felt very much out of her element, being confronted with the unknown and the inexplicable. Things had all been so logical before – or perhaps they hadn’t been after all, not really. Her reasons for coming to the West Block hadn’t been funded in logic either, she was well aware of that. She had been selfish, and she was as selfish now, as she wouldn’t leave the side of the girl who had helped her so far, despite not being clear on her intentions or identity.

Kairi hadn’t noticed her inner contemplations, and was preoccupied trying to ward off the creatures. There were so many of them, where did they even come from? Was this one of the secrets harbored inside the Correctional Facility?

“Run, I said!” Kairi now yelled over her shoulder, blasting another flame into the group of creatures, which drove them back for a short moment.

In that same short moment, one of the creatures had managed to crawl behind Kairi, and it clawed its way into her back in that second of distraction. “Ouch!”

Safu didn’t hesitate. She barged into the creature as hard as she could, felt its tiny body twitch upon contact as it let go of Kairi in its surprise. Safu kicked it for good measure, causing it to fly a good couple of feet into the air before landing back amongst its kin.

Kairi looked back over her shoulder again, this time with a mix of gratitude and admiration in the smile she cast Safu. “Wow. Thanks. Are you some kind of martial artist?”

“Shion said once I’d be better suited as one than as a scholar.” Safu maneuvered herself now in a way that got her back to back with Kairi. If she wasn’t going to run, she wasn’t going to let herself be attacked off-guard, either.

“I see. Is Shion the person you’re looking for, by any chance?”

“Yes. I need to see him.”

“Then we better get out of here in one piece.”

Safu glanced back to see Kairi tightening her grip on her weapon, about which she had more and more questions the more she saw it in use. “Do you know more about these creatures?”

“Unfortunately so.” Kairi turned around just a bit, in time to blast aside one of the creatures – and this time, it didn’t just take the blow. It vanished, in a puff of black smoke into thin air. There was not a trace of it left, despite how solid it had felt.

“What _are_ they?”

“Watch it!” Kairi’s weapon swept in right in front of Safu, knocking out two more creatures on its way. “I’ll tell you later, okay? Let’s get out of here first.”

Safu wished to agree with the sentiment, but as she looked around, she found it hard to reply with a simple ‘yes’. It was still hard to see where they were coming from, but the creatures were multiplying fast. They were surrounding the girls from all directions, and the hallway seemed to grow darker by the second as they did. One good kick might have helped against one of them, but this was a hoard.

Safu still didn’t know what they were, Kairi’s one-word answer of ‘Heartless’ and her warning aside. Still, she could feel it. Just as how she had felt that being brought into the Correctional Facility meant she would never see Shion again, she could now feel how these creatures were not harmless in any way. The shadow creatures were like animals, preying on the two of them, stretching their claws in an attempt to reach them.

Kairi made a sound that could have been a curse, hidden under her breath. “They’re strong,” she said, punctuating the words with her weapon. “Really strong, and they’re just Shadows. Safu?”

She swallowed. “Yes.”

“Stay close to me.” Kairi raised her weapon in the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can pry the head canon of Safu and Kairi teaming up and becoming friends from my cold dead hands, okay.


	3. West Block

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sora and Riku have also made it to No. 6 and meet some interesting new people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this is one _long_ chapter. As in, it's over 11k and about 25% of the whole fic... Oops. In my defense, this was originally going to be the full fic until I got hit by NO BUT PLOT.  
>  This will be the last chapter for September 6, the rest of the story will be up tomorrow on Shion's birthday.  
> Ehh enjoy!

Upon arrival, Sora was honestly underwhelmed. After King Mickey’s letter, he had been expecting a big, flourishing city, but instead he’d found himself in a wasteland.

Well. Maybe he’d landed a bit too quickly in his enthusiasm, but still. At least that meant he had won the race, as there was no sign of Riku or Kairi yet – oh, hang on.

“I won,” Sora declared, turning around with a grin to face Riku. He might not have gotten used to seeing with a blindfold like his friend, but he sure recognized the sound of Riku walking up to him.

“Sure, whatever.” Riku had just retreated his armor and brushed off his arms now. He did smile when his eyes met Sora’s, so he chalked that up as a double win. “So where’s Kairi?”

“What d’you mean? She’s with you, right?”

Riku blinked several times, then looked back to make sure. “Eh, no. I thought she caught up with you before I did?”

Sora rolled his eyes at that. “Rikuuuu.”

“What? You’re the one who wanted to race!”

“Yeah, well, you’re the one who lost Kairi!”

“But if it’s a _race_ … Oh, forget it.” Riku sighed a little and rolled his shoulders. “You sure she didn’t catch up with you?”

“Pretty sure.” Sora looked around again, at the wasteland around them that didn’t even remotely look like the city they had been promised. So maybe he’d miscalculated a little, but Riku had found him here – surely Kairi would find them too? Or maybe she had gotten lost on the way. “Do you think we should go find her?”

“It’s probably better if we wait,” Riku said, “if all of us go out looking for the other, we’re gonna keep missing each other.”

“Good point.” And so Sora flopped down on the cold harsh ground, pulling up his knees and leaning back on his hands. He looked up expectantly at Riku, who shook his head for a second but then followed his example.

“Just like old times, huh.”

“Minus the sound of waves.”

“Ha, yeah.” Sora smiled. It had been a while since it had been just him and Riku. Usually they had separate missions these days, which was understandable, but not all that much fun. Okay, going on missions with Donald and Goofy was still fun of course, but he’d been looking for Riku and Kairi long enough, thank you very much.

There was silence between them for a while, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Surprisingly, it was Riku who broke it, with a smirk playing on his lips.

“So did Kairi really beat you this morning?”

“You saw that?” Sora grinned. “Yeah, she disarmed me, I guess that counts.”

“You shouldn’t go so easy on her. She’s not gonna be prepared once she ends up against a real enemy.”

“Aww, come on Riku, she’s our friend! You’re such a cruel teacher.” He bumped their shoulders together good-naturedly. “Fine, but then I won’t go easy on you next time, either, just to be fair.”

“Oh, look at me, I’m cowering in fear.”

“ _Hey_!”

Riku laughed out loud at his offence. “What, you wanna go for another round now?”

“Nah, I’m good. Maybe later, to prove how wrong you are for laughing at me.”

“Sure, sure.” Riku chuckled once more, and the comfortable silence returned.

 

The sun had been close to setting when they’d first arrived, and it wasn’t before long when it had set completely and darkness started to set in. There still was no sign of Kairi.

Sora had slumped further on the ground, his head pillowed on his crossed arms as he looked up at the night sky, knees still pulled up. The ground was actually pretty hard and cold, but he’d gotten used to sleeping in weird places over the last couple of years. He could probably fall asleep here, too, if he gave his eyes a rest…

“Hey.” Riku’s face was hovering over his, a teasing smile on his lips. “I’d think you’ve had enough sleep for at least ten years at this point.”

“I wasn’t sleeping!”

“Sure, Sora.”

“Honest!” He shot up so quickly Riku barely had the time to move out of the way, and they all but clashed their foreheads together. Riku just snickered in response. “See, I’m awake. Why, did Kairi get here?”

“Still no sign of her.” The look on Riku’s face grew serious as he looked around, the barren landscape now cloaked in the darkness of the night. “Maybe we should start looking.”

Sora frowned. “But where?”

“Someplace where there are people?” Riku suggested. “Like the city we were meant to land in before you took a detour.”

“Haha, yeah, I guess I got a little sidetracked.” Sora scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “But it’s already dark.”

“We can set up a camp if you like. I’m guessing Kairi will do the same.” Riku shrugged. “Or we can see how far we get tonight, it’s not that late. It _is_ dark, though.”

“Oh, I’m not afraid of the dark.” Sora grinned. “I have a keyblade! And you’re here with me, so really, how much safer can I be?”

Riku muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘ _absolute_ total sap’, but he wouldn’t quite face Sora as he pushed himself up from the ground. He waited for a moment, then stretched out his hand to Sora. “Come on, then, you dork.”

 

Personally, Sora was pretty alright walking around in the dark together, even if the scenery was rather dull. There still was no sign of any city in the distance, the wastelands were just that – wastelands, and the occasional tree was by far not tall enough to tower over them for some sense of proper nature. Even the stars left them as the sky grew cloudy.

Riku, on the other hand, seemed rather ill at ease, at it got worse the longer they walked. “Okay, Riku, what is it?”

“Nothing.” Riku shook his head. “That’s the point.”

“Huh?”

“I mean – well, there really is nothing, is there? We’re here for the Heartless, and I haven’t seen a single one of them.”

“Oh. Right.” Sora thought about it for a second. “You think Kairi got to them first?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Riku sighed. “It’s too quiet, I don’t trust it.”

“Geesh, Riku!” Sora softly bumped their shoulders together, though he had to almost jump for his shoulders to get on Riku’s level. He was going to grow more soon and catch up with him, he was sure. “No Heartless is a good thing, right? Let’s first just find Kairi.”

 

 

They didn’t find Kairi that night. Or the night after, for that matter. In fact, it took quite some days of them wandering around the wastelands before the scenery started to even remotely change. They were starting to see some green-gone-brown around them, small patches of bushes and plants that had lost their leaves, an occasional stubborn flower that might easily be a weed, but that was about it. They hadn’t come across anyone so far, least of all Kairi.

Sora was getting really, really bored of it, really fast.

“Can’t we skip the exploring and hop out of here?” he asked after a while, when his and Riku’s earlier conversation about what they were going to do if they didn’t meet anyone for yet another day had fallen quiet about five minutes earlier.

“We could, if we had any idea where to go.”

“Ugh, stop making sense.”

Riku laughed at that. “Well, it can’t be that far anymore,” he said, “this world was almost destroyed, remember? But there’s more and more plants now, we must be getting closer to – something.”

Sora smirked. “Really _eloquent_ , Riku.”

“Hey, as long as you get the idea.”

“Hm.” Sora folded his arms behind his head, looking up at the afternoon sky. It was getting dark already, and it usually got pretty cold at night around here. Riku had mentioned how it was probably turning winter here soon, which Sora quickly figured was most likely true.

Travelling all those other worlds had sort of gotten him used to some cold, but he’d still grown up on the islands, where ‘cold’ never came close to ‘freezing’ or ‘snow’, for that matter.

Sora had an idle thought about Kairi and whether she was as used to the warmth on the islands as he had been, when he suddenly spotted something dark rushing into the bushes on their left. By instinct, Sora held the Kingdom Key in his hand not even a second later, and noticed how Riku had likewise summoned his keyblade.

“Looked like a…”

“Yeah.” Riku nodded before Sora had even finished his sentence. They were good at this, being a team, watch my back while I watch yours. Maybe this situation wasn’t quite as dramatic as, say, back when they had fought Xemnas together, but they were still a team and on guard.

Sure enough, a Shadow Heartless leapt out of the bushes, aiming for Riku who was the closest. It was clearly not a very smart Heartless.

Riku easily got rid of it with a quick slash of Way to the Dawn, bumping shoulders with Sora as he backed away after that. “Just the one, right?”

“Didn’t see any more.”

“At least we’re on the right track.”

“Right.” Sora grinned. “You know you’re going the right way if you run into obstacles!”

“You know, that sounds like it could be very inspiring, but it’s coming from you.”

“Hey!” Sora nudged his friend in reply. “I changed my mind, I want that rematch right now.”

Riku smirked. “Better save your breath. I wouldn’t want to wear you out before we find more Heartless.”

“Oh, you’re hilarious.”

Riku did have a point, though; one Heartless was almost always a sign that more of them were around. They really shouldn’t let their guard down just yet, even if they only had to deal with Shadows for now.

 

 

The scenery changed more and more over the next day. They came across rumbles of what were probably once buildings, patches of bushes and as they progressed, more and more Heartless. They were still weak and easy to deal with, but there were more of them, and one morning they were cornered by a whole swarm of Shadows.

Well, at least things weren’t boring anymore.

Sora chugged down a Potion after getting rid of the last Shadow, then looked back over his shoulder to find Riku. “You think this means we’re getting close?”

“I’d say so.” Riku retreated Way to the Dawn and nodded as if to gesture to the area in front of them, and Sora followed his line of sight.

“Oh.” Sora had been sufficiently distracted by the Shadows not to notice the buildings in front of them, still some miles away and not exactly in great condition, but at least these houses had roofs and doors that were still in place. The leafless trees made it seem pretty gloomy, but hey, Sora had been to Halloween Town. He knew better than to judge gloomy places at first sight. If anything, this meant a much bigger chance at finally meeting people, and maybe finding Kairi at last. “Let’s go!”

 

In the later part of the morning, they reached whatever settlement they had seen earlier in the distance, though ‘settlement’ was probably a bit generous. There were houses here and there, sure, but overall, most of the place was in ruins.

“Do you think this is the city?” Sora asked a bit wearily, looking around to keep his eye on Heartless, which were probably more likely to show up than people.

“Well, it _was_ almost destroyed,” Riku said, though he sounded a bit uncertain as well.

Finally, they heard human voices in the distance. Something was going on, and Sora was determined to find out what.

With Riku in his wake, Sora rushed through the streets, passing houses here and there until they reached the source of the noise. It was a market place, or something resembling it, anyway. There were barracks and stables, and people moving along the wares, some stopping to buy fruit or meat or whatever else was on sale. It really was noisy; merchants were shouting to sell their wares, people were shouting at each other, and Sora almost lost his balance as two kids slammed into him and ran past him without even turning around to see whom they had bumped into. “Whoa!”

“Stay close,” Riku said, softly and close to his ear. He’d seized him by the arm. “Seems like an easy place to get lost in.”

Sora nodded resolutely, though he also felt rather excited. At last, a new place to explore, and it didn’t seem to be teeming with Heartless for a change. Which was probably a bit strange in itself, because where else had all those Heartless from earlier come from?

He was soon distracted anyway as there was so much to see around this market place, even if it looked a little grimy and the air was foggy with smoke that came from the tents lined up on the street side. “Hey, let’s get something to eat here!”

“Sora, I don’t think this is quite…”

“Oh, come on Riku, we’re just getting to know the place a little, nothing wrong with that.”

Sora had already found a stable that was selling fruit, and was eyeing a couple of red apples that looked pretty good. “How much for these?”

 The old lady behind the stable just glared at him, so Sora shrugged and reached for one of his pockets, which was surprisingly flat. “Huh? I was sure I put some munny in here.” He started rummaging another one of his pockets, but Riku was ahead of him and pushed some coins to the woman to pay for the apples, though she was still staring at them with suspicion. She didn’t tear away her gaze as she bit on one of the coins, and only then reluctantly handed over the fruits.

Riku handed one apple to Sora. “Here you go. Maybe you just got robbed.”

“Come on, really? By who, those kids? Don’t be silly, Riku.”

 Riku shrugged in response, biting into his own apple. “I don’t know, it feels kind of sketchy here.”

“I’m sure you – hey!” This time, Sora was quick to witness what Riku had suggested; another kid had run past them, and taken Sora’s apple from his hands in one swift movement. Sora blinked in surprise. “Wow.”

“Wow?”

“Yeah, I mean, that was pretty impressive,” Sora simply said, “but stealing is bad, of course! I guess they must be hungry, huh.”

Riku had tensed next to him. “I really have a bad feeling about this place.”

He wasn’t joking if he had ever even been, so Sora decided not to push it anymore. “Okay, we can just – move on, or something. At least we can now ask people if they’ve seen Kairi!”

 

They could, indeed, but people were far from friendly around here. Most people seemed happy to just mind their own business, and Sora got pushed aside more times than he liked to keep count of as they tried to maneuver their way through the masses. In that time, he’d also seen at least two other kids running away yelling, and he’d been chased away from five barracks in a row after lingering a bit too long. He’d also tripped over – well, something that he hadn’t been able to take a close look at, but by the way Riku dragged him away after that, he figured he probably didn’t want to see it anyway.

Sora also figured that people had rough lives around here. He might not always be the most attentive, as his friends were quick to remind him, but that didn’t escape his notice. It was hard to miss the rags in which the people around them were dressed, how thin the kids were, how often they heard the shouts of ‘thief’ and ‘pay up’.

He guessed it was no coincidence Riku also seemed more than willing to move away from the market place, taking a side street until they reached a quieter area. There were barracks and residents here, too, though a lot of them were more ruins than anything.

“Guess this place really was almost destroyed, huh.”

“But this doesn’t look like it was caused by darkness,” Riku said, slowing down a little as Sora was still briskly walking on. “There were no Heartless there, either, the scent of darkness is very faint. It’s almost like – like people did this.” He paused, locking eyes with Sora as the latter had stumbled across another ruin. This one was of a rather big building, with walls still standing. Sora folded his arms behind his head and leaned back against one of the walls.

“That sounds a little – whoa!”

Sora stumbled and only nearly could catch himself before falling. The wall behind him had moved aside.

“You okay?” Riku still grabbed him by the arm, belatedly trying to stop him from falling.

“Yeah, sure. Are those stairs?” Sora was looking behind him, down into the ground that had been hidden by the wall just now.

“Looks like it. I wonder what’s down there.”

The stairs ended at a door, still intact. So not everything here was rumbles, then. “One way to find out, right?” Sora brightened instantly. He liked exploring things, finding these hidden places. You never knew what you’d find down there.

With Riku right behind him, Sora made his way down the stairs, putting his hand lightly against the door. It wasn’t locked, so Sora pushed it open with ease. “Is there someone… wow, Riku, look!”

It was pretty dark inside, but not dark inside to miss the most obvious part of this underground room: books. A lot of books. Many organized on shelves, but just as many scattered around in piles. “Look at all these books! Belle would have a field trip here.” The words had barely left his lips when suddenly, a lot of things happened simultaneously.

“Sora, watch out!” Way to the Dawn shot out from behind him, clashing with something right in front of Sora. It was a knife. Someone was in front of them, hidden in the semi-darkness, and had managed to sneak up on them close enough to strike. It wasn’t a Heartless – Sora could just make out the eyes, which were grey instead of the usual yellow. They were human, and they were not happy.

“Get out.” The voice was low and cold. “No more warnings.”

“We mean no harm,” Riku said, his voice tensed and close to Sora’s ear. He pushed the blade out of harm’s way with his keyblade in the mean while, not moving from his new spot that partially blocked Sora’s sight.

Now that Sora’s eyes were getting used to the relative darkness, he could better make out the person in front of them. The guy didn’t look all that much older than them, but if there was something Sora had learnt by now, it was that looks didn’t always say all that much.  “Yeah, we got kind of lost, we didn’t know someone was in here,” Sora said, stepping away from Riku for a bit. The grey eyes followed him, but their owner kept his knife drawn. Riku still held onto his keyblade. “You okay, Riku?”

“Sure.” Sora hadn’t said as much, but Riku did withdraw Way to the Dawn now, still eyeing his opponent with suspicion as he took a step back. “Look, we were just…”

“Nezumi?” It was another voice. Someone popped up behind the boy with the grey eyes; another boy, who stood out in the darkness with his white hair and looked at the scene in wonder. “What’s going on? Are these friends of yours?”

The first stranger groaned. “Obviously. This is how I greet all my friends, who come over all the time, as I’m sure you’ve noticed by now.”

“Well, considering how you greet _me_ …”

“Just shut the hell up and learn how to lock the damn door behind you!”

Sora flinched a little at the harsh words, but the boy with the white hair seemed less impressed and just blinked in response.

 “You came in last, not me,” he dryly said.

“Oh, for…”

Sora snorted, which was maybe not the smartest thing to do, as he immediately got the attention and the knife pointed back at him.

“What was that?”

Sora backed away a little, not wanting to believe his opponent was necessarily harmful but still not trusting that knife. “Nothing, I just – you two are really good friends, huh?”

This, too, was perhaps not the smartest thing to do. But Sora had his eyes on the knife, and he reacted quickly enough to defend himself now. The Kingdom Key clashed against the metal, and Sora tried not to think too much about where it would have landed hadn’t he caught the knife. Riku had shifted next to him, and Way to the Dawn shimmered in the sparse light as well.

The boy with the grey eyes slowly withdrew his knife. “What the _hell_.”

“Whoa!” That was the other boy. “That really looked like it came out of nowhere!”

“Ah.” _Oops_. Sora put his free hand behind his head, grinning awkwardly. “It kinda did, huh.”

The white-haired boy now moved forward, studying Sora curiously. “How did you do that?”

“Ehm – it’s a flick of the wrist, really. Wait.” With the knife out of his face, Sora didn’t really see any threat here anyway. He focused for a second and retreated the Kingdom Key, which disappeared with a brief flash like always. “See? Nothing to it. Riku, you too.” He prodded Riku in the side a bit, as Riku had tensed again and did not seem that keen on following Sora’s example.  

Riku hesitated for about two seconds and then retreated Way to the Dawn.

The boy with the white hair was still staring in wonder, a smile spreading on his face. “I don’t think they’re dangerous, Nezumi,” he then said, directing himself at his friend. “If they’re really lost, can’t we try to help?”

The other boy just scoffed in reply. “Oh, sure. Invite them in for tea while you’re at it, why don’t you?”

 

*

 

Riku very much doubted that the guy – Nezumi? Was that his name? – had actually intended to invite them in for tea, but as it stood, his companion had invited Sora and Riku in without missing a beat anyway. At least it meant they weren’t at knife point anymore, which Riku considered a definite upside.

That didn’t mean he felt at ease, though. Grey eyes were still looking at him in suspicion, and Riku doubted the knife was very far away.

Sora was looking around cheerfully, talking about how cool it was to have all these books here and how it must be like living in a library, which was really cool if you liked reading, which he didn’t in particular but he had friends who did, so it was still cool. Riku just smiled to himself and waited for Sora to get back to his side.

“Oh, right!” Sora said, perking up again. “I don’t think we caught your names. I’m Sora, and this here is my best friend Riku. Who are you?”

It earned him a tiny quirk of the eyebrow from the dark-haired boy, and some hesitant shuffling and an equally hesitant smile from his white-haired companion. “Ah – I’m Shion.”

_Shion?_

The name was vaguely familiar to Riku, one he’d heard before, except he couldn’t really remember where or when. Like it had been in a dream you only remembered the feeling of when you woke up, rather than what had happened.

But if it threw Riku off for a second, it surely had an impact on Sora. “Shi… on?” He repeated, staring at the boy almost in disbelief, screwing up his face as if he was trying really hard to remember something.

 It lasted for a good couple of seconds before Sora seemed to realize everyone was now staring at him in return, and he caught himself and leant back, relaxing a little. “Oh, eh. That’s a nice name! And who’s your friend?”

Sora had directed himself to the other boy, but Shion answered instead, his smile less hesitant this time. “This is Nezumi.”

“Oh. Hi! Nice to meet you, Nezumi, and thanks for letting us stay!”

Nezumi had been leaning against one of the many book shelves in silence so far, his eyebrow raised, but now snorted in response. “You sure you haven’t met this one before, Shion? Talking about airheads.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, just how very – hey, _ouch_!” Nezumi was rubbing his earlobe the next second, scowling into his shoulder for some reason. “What was that for?”

Sora had jumped up at the sound, easily getting into Nezumi’s personal space to see for himself what was going on. “Oh!” He sounded pretty excited, too. “You have mice?!”

“Well, yes –Cravat, you shouldn’t bite Nezumi,” Shion said, directing himself to the mouse he gently lifted from its hiding place in Nezumi’s neck. The mice in question squeaked, and two more mice, one lighter and one darker, popped up on Shion’s shoulders.

Sora was delighted. “Look, Riku! They’re actual mice!”

“Yeah, you dork, I can see that.” He nudged Sora’s shoulder teasingly in response. “I have eyes, remember.”

“Yeah well, that hair cut was not too long ago, just checking.” Sora grinned and happily took over the black mouse from Shion’s shoulder before he looked at Riku again, almost serious. “You think they’re related to His Majesty?”

Riku didn’t even have the time to reply as Nezumi made an inelegant sound, seemingly stifling a laugh, judging by his clenched fist pressed against his lips and the quirk in his eyebrows.

Whatever it was he was about to say, Shion caught up with him. “At least I’m not the one going around calling himself ‘rat’ around here, _Nezumi_.”

“Oh, am I supposed to be offended now, _Your Highness_? Hey, ouch! Cut it out!”

“Hamlet!”

The lightest mouse scurried off Nezumi’s shoulder at the sound of Shion’s voice, and quickly hopped onto the white-haired boy’s arm before making its way to his hair, nestling there comfortably.

Sora laughed cheerfully next to him. “He blends right in!”

Riku had learnt to recognize that tone of voice, the one that said ‘I have made a new friend’ without saying the words. Once upon a time it would have upset him, but things had changed even if Sora hadn’t.

Sora seemed pretty preoccupied with the mice, but Riku felt eyes on him – non-threatening, merely curious. He looked up and met Shion’s stare directly, after which the boy immediately directed his line of sight to  the floor, apparently embarrassed to have been caught. Not embarrassed enough to stare at Sora next, however.

“Something on my face?” Sora asked, pretty quickly at that.

“Ah, no – I just…” Shion reached for his own face, touching the red mark that wound itself around his neck. Huh. Riku hadn’t seen something like that before. “You aren’t from around here, are you? Not at all.”

“Nah, we got _really_ lost,” Sora smoothly said. Riku would have made a mental note of him having become a better liar if that was even a lie in the first place. “And we’re looking for someone, so we thought to check here. But you guys live here, don’t you?”

“We do.” There was a finality to Nezumi’s voice as he replied. “Though I’m going to kick Shion here out soon if he doesn’t leave by himself.”

Shion blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, you forgot?” Nezumi turned around to face him directly. “Didn’t you have dogs to wash today? Of course it’s not my job to remember your schedule, but I’d rather not have Inukashi stomping in as well because His Royal Highness was too busy getting acquainted with potential burglars.”

 “Dogs to wash?” Sora piped up immediately. “As in, real dogs?”

“It’s my job,” Shion quickly said, as he reached for a coat that had been lying on the lone chair in the room. “Do you want to come? I’m sure Inukashi could use an extra pair of hands.”

 Sora’s entire face lit up at the question, which made it clear as day his answer was a resounding ‘Yes!’ before he said it.

And off they were, as easy as that. Shion was shrugging into his coat while Sora followed him to the door, asking fifty questions a minute about how many dogs there were, and if they had names, and how often they needed washing anyway.

Riku shook his head with a smirk and then looked around in the room. Nezumi was still standing against the shelf, having picked up a book by that point and idly leaving through it. “You’re staying here?”

“Would hate to miss out on the evidently highly intelligent conversation going on between Shion and that spiky-haired friend of yours.” Nezumi sighed in resignation as he closed his book. “Just when I thought my ears were going to catch a break.”

Nezumi’s actions didn’t match his words, though, as he now reached for a jacket that hung halfway over the bed in the room. He vaguely nodded in the direction of the door, which Shion had already opened for Sora. “Don’t see you in a rush either, despite that grandiose display of _chivalry_ earlier.”

Riku snorted. “Sora can handle himself, trust me.”

“Whatever you say, hot shot.” Nezumi put his book back on the shelf now so he could shrug into his jacket, then took up a dark cloth he arranged around his neck. “Come on, then. Let Shion and spike-head –”

“Sora.”

“Fine. Let Shion and _Sora_ lead the way to the realm of mutts, and you can tell me just exactly what you two are doing here. Don’t think for a second I buy that crap about getting lost.”

“Riku!” Sora now called from the doorway, sounding rather impatient already. “Aren’t you coming? Shion says there are puppies!”

Riku bit back a grin at that. “Yeah, just a second. Haven’t you literally seen a hundred puppies by now?”

Sora rolled his eyes in response. “They’re _puppies_ , Riku.”

“Oh, fine.”

And if Nezumi coughed with something that sounded suspiciously like ‘whipped’ in between, well, Riku could just pretend he hadn’t heard that.

 

Riku found himself mostly in Nezumi’s company, not necessarily by design as much as by natural course, as Sora had taken up an enthusiastic pace with Shion as they talked. He did however occasionally look back over his shoulder to see if Riku was still right behind them, and cast a bright grin before redirecting his attention to Shion, who, to be fair, did almost the exact same thing to Nezumi.

The latter narrowed his eyes and was looking at Riku. “Not as talkative as your friend there, are you?”

“I could say the same thing about you.”

“Oh, I’m just biding my time. Unlike Shion there, I’m not all that willing to blindly trust two strangers barging into my place with weapons in hand, claiming to ‘just be lost’ and ‘looking for a friend’.” His voice lowered. “What are you really after?”

Riku shrugged. “Anything out of the ordinary, really.” He wasn’t going to talk about the Heartless, but he figured that cautious or not, at least Nezumi was from around here and actually talkative. He could try and figure something out that way. “We were going to get into the city at first, but we got off-trail.”

“Something out of the ordinary in the city, huh.” Nezumi’s grey eyes hardened as he almost hissed his next words. “I’d stay away if I were you. It’s not like you’re getting into the city from here in the first place.”

“You know something.” Riku realized it in seconds from that tone of voice. “The city – it’s just beyond that wall, isn’t it?”

“You’re not going to get in there by just walking in.”

“Our friend might have.”

Nezumi averted his look, directed it at the back of Shion’s head in front of him. “Doubt it. If it is so, say goodbye to your friend, because they’re not going to get out of there again. At least not by their own free will.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Look. That city…” Nezumi nodded over his shoulder, towards the wall in the distance. “No. 6, you’ll want to stay away from there. Hell, who knows what will become of the place within the next couple of days, and I can’t say I’d mourn its loss. Forget about your friend, if they did make it into there by some miracle. I would dare say you drew the better end of the stick when you ended up here in the West Block.”

Riku stayed silent for a good couple of seconds, mentally retracing his steps since they’d arrived in this neighborhood earlier that day. Robberies, assaults, at least two hidden guns he’d spotted in pockets, that – body that Sora had tripped over and thankfully hadn’t taken a closer look at… “What is going on in that city if it’s that much worse than it is here?”

“Who is to say, really? Tell you what, though. Dangerous as this place might be, at least it’s honest. That city puts up a pretty façade, but as for what’s beneath the surface…” He trailed off, his line of sight distracted again. Riku followed his look and found Shion on the other end of it. “Shion – is he…”

“I don’t trust you,” Nezumi interrupted him harshly. “Not in the slightest – don’t think you can pull any tricks with those weapons of yours. I’m just telling you this now. If you managed to get here by yourself, then get out of here by yourself while you still can. Don’t even bother with the city.”

‘While you still can’? “Is something going to happen here?”

Nezumi didn’t answer, which said enough to Riku. And with as often as he’d looked at Shion, Riku was starting to suspect something more was going on with him, too, possibly connected to the city.

Would it really be as easy as finding the source of the Heartless and defeating them, or was there something more going on? And if what Nezumi was saying was true, then they had to find Kairi soon and cross their fingers she had _not_ landed in the city, despite the original plan. He didn’t like this one bit.

 

*

 

Sora had quickly decided he liked Shion. And he was pretty sure Nezumi wasn’t all that bad either, as Shion seemed to trust him and well, Sora had to admit that maybe it could be a little threatening to have two people stumble into your room unannounced. This wasn’t the sort of place where people were awfully friendly with each other, after all, he had learnt that much.

He let Shion lead the way, with Riku and Nezumi following right behind them.

“Does Nezumi always walk you to work?”

“Lately he does,” Shion answered. “It’s – not quite safe here, and he’s been here longer than I have.”

“Oh. You’re not from around here, then?”

“No.” Shion’s smile, which had appeared when he’d been talking about Nezumi, now faded. “I’m from within the walls, from No. 6.”

“No. 6?” That was the place they were supposed to investigate, wasn’t it? “Oh! So you know your way there? We lost our friend, you see, and she’s probably there.”

Shion’s eyes widened at that. “I, I don’t… Ehm. We’re, we’re here,” he then said, gesturing hesitantly at the ruins that had appeared before them. It was a pretty big area, so it must have been a big, tall building once. It was still standing, though parts of it had collapsed. And, indeed – there were dogs.

Two of them hurried towards Shion the minute they spotted him, one barking happily while the other bumped his head against Shion’s hand, eager to be petted. “Yes, it’s your turn today, I haven’t forgotten. And this here is Sora – be nice to him, okay?”

Both dogs now looked over curiously at the boy in question, who knelt down to get on their level and held out his hand. One of the dogs sniffed his hand expectantly, five, ten seconds, before barking once and licking said hand.

Shion had knelt down as well and smiled brightly at Sora. “They seem to approve of you.”

“Oh, good! Makes it easier to help you wash them.” Sora was about to say more, but he promptly forgot all about whatever he’d been thinking when something small, grey, fluffy and decidedly cuddly curiously pattered out from behind a corner to come and look, quickly followed by three, four, five other equally small and cuddly – “Puppies!”

Said puppies immediately jumped up upon being called, and Shion laughed while Sora was entirely too preoccupied to care.

“Yeah, there was a litter a while ago. They’re still very young, but old enough to hold.” He said something more, but by then Sora had tuned out and focused all his attention on the puppies in front of him, lifting one in his arms while another wormed its way past the big dog in an attempt to get into Sora’s lap. “They’re so soft!”

The puppy in his arms seemed pleased with this statement and licked Sora’s nose, Sora grinning broadly in response.

Shion, too, seemed rather taken by the puppies, though he somehow resisted the temptation of trying to cuddle them all at once. Maybe it helped that he apparently worked here multiple times a week. Speaking of which…

Sora looked up to the impatient tapping of a foot in front of him. He looked into a dark face framed by long, black hair, belonging to someone clad in dark clothes and folded arms. Someone who was looking less than pleased to see them. “Oi, Shion, you’re late – and where the hell did you dig up this one?”

Sora grinned sheepishly. “Ehm, hi.”

“This is Sora,” Shion quickly said, “he’s come over to help me. Sora, this is Inukashi I told you about, who owns this hotel and rents out the dogs.”

“I don’t see any ‘helping’ here,” Inukashi said, “and I refuse to pay an extra pair of hands if they don’t do actual washing.”

Sora laughed. “I don’t need to be paid! I’m happy to help, really.”

Inukashi raised an eyebrow. “Are you for real? It’s the West Block, spike, no-one here is just ‘happy to help’.”

“Well, I am,” Sora countered, cuddling the puppy in his arms to make his statement.

Inukashi scoffed. “Yeah, good luck convincing anyone. Shion, he’s on you – if I catch a single whiff of one of my dogs getting hurt or whatever…”

“Got it.”

“Hmph.” Inukashi’s look wandered off now, catching Nezumi and Riku. The former had seated himself on a part of crumbled wall and seemed amused to just watch, whereas Riku had stayed behind a bit, a smile on his face as Sora caught him looking at him.

Inukashi seemed more interested in Nezumi, however. “Ugh, and of course _you_ are here, too. What is this, take-a-stranger-to-work-day? Who’s the sparkly – you know what, never mind, I don’t actually give a damn. I already know these two bumbled through the marketplace and only made it out alive by sheer luck and a lost apple. It just amazes me the great Nezumi would put up with them, though I suppose stranger things have happened.” The last comment was accompanied by a nod at Shion, who shrugged it off as if he was used to it.

Sora was still trying to piece together Inukashi’s words as he felt he was missing something when Riku spoke up, a little closer to Sora’s side now. “How do you know that?” he said. “About the apple, I mean.”

Inukashi flashed a toothy grin. “Information is my business, silver. Wouldn’t be very good at it if I _didn’t_ know these things. My dogs are my eyes and ears in this town, told me all about you amateurs. Really not from around here, are ya?”

“True enough,” Riku said. He’d left Nezumi’s wall entirely and hovered at Sora’s side. “What else do you know?”

“Not gonna tell.” Inukashi shrugged. “Not without payment, anyway. Information isn’t free, ya know. So, are you gonna get to washing my dogs or what? ‘Cause unless you plan on renting a room otherwise, I’m not letting you loiter around the place.”

“Oh!” Shion looked up suddenly. “Hey, Sora, didn’t you say you still had searching to do? Maybe you can stay at Inukashi’s hotel and look from there! I mean, I’d offer you a room…”

“Oh, _hell_ no.” That was Nezumi, who was still on his wall, but apparently not far enough not to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“… but as you saw, we don’t quite have enough space,” Shion finished his sentence undisturbed. “So, what about it? As a payment for washing, Inukashi?”

“Tsk.” Inukashi shrugged. “First the job, then we’ll see about payment.”

 

Shion had quickly explained to Sora how he usually went about washing the dogs, which had to be pretty thorough, as Sora now learnt that Inukashi rented the dogs out as heaters for those staying at the hotel.

By now, Inukashi had gone inside and Riku had taken place on the wall next to Nezumi. Sora had vaguely heard Riku murmur something about helping before he’d felt a short, hesitant ruffle through his hair and Riku had walked past. So that hadn’t been very attentive of Sora, but he’d also basically been covered in puppies at that point, which was a valid excuse for not paying attention to anything, really.

The puppies weren’t big enough to be rented out yet, but one of them had fallen in some kind of sticky mud and needed to be washed quickly anyway.

Once that major distraction was over and dealt with, Sora looked at Shion for how to deal with the bigger dogs, except Shion himself was preoccupied looking at Nezumi.

Sora coughed to catch his attention. “So. Nezumi, huh?”

“Oh!” Shion looked back at Sora now, a little sheepish. “Yes. I mean, that’s not his real name, but it’s what he goes by. So – Nezumi it is.”

“Cool.” Sora grinned. “I’ve heard some interesting names so far – I mean, I know this guy named _Beast_ , which I doubt is his real name, but he’s pretty great, so what’s in a name, huh. Of course, ‘Beast’ might just be because he actually _is_ a… eh. Hum.” He caught his own words and thought the better of it. “Long story, never mind. But hey, you guys are really good friends, right? Like me and Riku?”

Shion smiled. “We haven’t known each other for that long, I guess,” he then said, sounding a bit wistful. “Not really, anyway. But yes, he’s – important to me, very important. Actually,” he now continued, and his voice was much more conversational all of a sudden, “about Riku, I was wondering… Oh, you can just scrub in the shampoo like that, it’s fine… his hair, is it natural?”

Was _that_ why Sora had caught him staring at Riku a couple of times before? That was – sort of a relief, though he couldn’t say why exactly. “Yeah, definitely.” Sora nodded to emphasize his words. “I mean, I’ve told you we’ve known each other since forever, so unless he’s been dyeing it since he was a baby… why?”

“Well.” Shion paused scrubbing the dog in front of him for a bit, much to its dismay. “My own hair used to be dark until a couple of months ago. It’s not really a natural hair color here, so I was wondering if Riku had been through something similar, or… Oh, but you already mentioned how you’re really not from around No. 6, didn’t you? Then it could just be natural where you’re from. That’s – that’s good.” He tried to smile again, but it was very faint and Sora highly doubted this kind of smile would be enough to power any kind of Gummi Ship, no matter how small.

“O-kay.”  Sora drew out the last syllable. “So what happened?”

“It’s a long story.” Shion started scrubbing the dog in front of him again, focusing really intensely on that before he continued. “It happened just as I got here from the city. Nezumi saved my life back then.”

“Is the city that bad?”

Shion looked up now, faced him directly. “I have no intention of going back there,” he then said, “it’s just that there’s still people there… or were. I mean, my mother’s still there, but Safu…”

That was a new name. “Safu?”

“My friend. She was taken inside the city, even though she is an elite, and she was transported to the Correctional Facility without being registered as a prisoner.” For the first time since they’d met , Shion sounded genuinely upset, and this was something Sora completely understood, more than he’d like to. He didn’t know about facilities, but he did know how it had felt when Kairi, and later Riku, had been taken away from him, more than once even.

“Can you get to her?” Sora asked, because clearly Shion knew his friend’s whereabouts.

It took a while before Shion answered however, and he’d finished rinsing his dog before he spoke up again. “Yes,” he said, “Nezumi’s helping me, again. We came up with a plan, but it’s not easy.”

“I’ll help!” It was the least Sora could do. Shion was upset, and it was easy enough to remedy that, even if the path wouldn’t be easy.

Shion looked positively shocked, though. “No, really! You don’t have to do that. I don’t think I know all the details about the Facility, at least not about what is happening inside, but I do know it’s dangerous to get in there in the first place. Really dangerous.”

“Me and Riku can handle it, trust me.” Sora grinned broadly, hoping to cheer Shion up. Seriously, how dangerous could it be compared to some of the things he’d been through so far? Sora had seen enough of this world to know that, sure, people weren’t _all_ super nice here, but the Heartless really sounded like the biggest danger here. And hey, the Heartless were what they were here for in the first place! “I mean, if it’s something like the Heartless, we can _definitely_ handle it.”

Shion blinked in confusion. “Heartless?”

“Yeah – isn’t that why the Facility and the city are so dangerous?” Oh, oops. Riiiight. Something about not letting other worlds know that there were, in fact, other worlds out there. Technically he wasn’t saying that, was he?

“Is that – some phenomenon where you’re from, or something that you call by a different name?” Shion asked, shifting a bit closer. “I’ve been thinking about this since the moment you and Riku entered the underground room, but… First there were your weapons, of course. No. 6 is supposed to be the most advanced city, and I’ve never even heard about a technique that is even remotely similar to what you did. And now you mention something else I’ve never heard of… What is it like, where you’re from?”

 Sora guessed he could talk about that, at least. “Destiny Islands,” he thus cheerfully announced. “So there’s the ocean around us, and there’s this play island… Oh, and it’s warm there, warmer than here at least.”

“Islands, huh.” Shion momentarily paused his washing. “Wow. I’ve never even seen the ocean in real life.”

“Are we that far away from it?”

“I think so, yes – but before I came here recently, all I knew was the insides of the wall around No. 6.” Shion nodded to the distant shimmering. “The reasons weren’t pleasant, but Nezumi did end up showing me much more of the world.”

“He likes to travel, then?”

Shion fell silent for quite a bit, instead focusing on washing the dog in front of him again. “I don’t know. I mean, he’s stayed here for a bit, but he… has his reasons for that. I don’t know.”

Sora shrugged. “Oh, well. It’s nice to explore other worlds, but it’s also good to have a home to come back to, right?” He didn’t think he was speaking only for himself, not after he’d gotten Riku back from the darkness and they’d gone back to the islands together. Riku had been eager to leave, and Sora figured he still was, especially now that he knew for sure there were other worlds out there that he could get to. Still, when it was Sora and Riku and Kairi together on the islands, it felt like home.

“I suppose.” Shion seemed less convinced, which Sora thought was kind of strange. He did mention his mother and his friends, right? Or did he have to choose between this place and the city? That couldn’t be easy. Surely this wasn’t a paradise, but Shion had very definitely made good friends here. Leaving friends behind was always difficult, especially if you weren’t sure how long it’d be before you’d see them again.

Luckily one of the puppies took it on itself to cheer up Shion, licking his nose until he laughed out loud. Sora laughed along.

 

*

Riku’s brain was working overtime after the tidbits of information he’d managed to pry from Nezumi, so much so that he barely registered Sora’s laughter over the puppies. It still made him smile, but his thoughts were preoccupied.

Nezumi had wandered off into the hotel, and Riku had been left to his own devices. He was thinking.

Something was going to happen here, and soon. If Kairi was inside the city, her fate didn’t look so bright, and there was no real way for them to get into the city to find her without getting captured. If that was the case, then odds were Kairi had been arrested as well and taken… somewhere.  Nezumi hadn’t been that keen on discussing that matter, so it couldn’t be good.

As for the Heartless situation, that sounded like the least of their problems. Whatever was going to happen had nothing to do with the Heartless, or at least it was going to happen regardless, as Nezumi hadn’t known what he’d been talking about when Riku had subtly tried to ask about the shadowy creatures. Nezumi knew a lot, and he was scheming. He had likely been for quite a while, if Riku had to guess.

“Riku!” Sora cheerfully announced, giving Riku a full tenth of a second to react before Sora cheerfully hopped onto the  wall next to him and got entirely into his personal space. “We’re done washing the dogs!”

“I can see that,” Riku said, unable to help his smirk when he looked over at his friend. Maybe the dogs had been cleaned, but Sora was covered in foam and hairs and the occasional muddy spot. “Where did Shion go?”

“Inside. He’s gonna ask Inukashi if we can get a room here, y’know, as a payment. Shion said Inukashi might be more likely to say yes if he asked instead of me.”

“Hm.” Riku brushed a tuff of foam off Sora’s spikes. “You two seem to be getting along.”

“Yeah. Hey, you know, Shion is also looking for a friend,” Sora then announced. “I told him we’d help, but he said it’d be too dangerous – can you believe it?”

“What happened to his friend?” Riku asked, all attention focused on Sora’s words now.

“She was arrested inside the city and taken to some – Facility?” Sora scratched his hair and screwed up his face as he raked his memory. “Corr… something. Facility, definitely a facility.”

“I see.” Riku considered what Nezumi had told him. “Like a prison? Only with a fancier name?”

“I dunno,” Sora said, “maybe? He did say she was arrested, so I don’t think it’s a fun place.”

“Hm.” Riku carefully thought about his next words, not wanting to upset Sora unnecessarily. “Y’know, based on what Nezumi told me, there is a chance Kairi is in that place too.”

“Really?!” Sora sounded both concerned and a little – enthusiastic. “Well, then we definitely have to go check it out! Not only to save Shion’s friend, but also to find and save Kairi!”

Riku sighed a little and kept his comment to himself. “Yeah. Sure,” he settled on saying, not quite as sure of this impromptu plan as Sora seemed to be.  

 

Shion returned some minutes later, Inukashi right behind him.

“Shion here is vouching for you guys,” the latter announced, “and considering the kind of customers I usually get, I guess you’re okay. You can consider it your payment for the dog washing to stay the night here, but you’re only getting one dog between the two of you. It’s gonna be a cold night, so I need to rent out the rest.”

“That’s plenty!” Sora announced before Riku even had the time to form a response. “Thanks a bunch, Inukashi! Riku, we get to spend the night at the dog hotel! Oh, Shion, you guys have to go now?”

“Yes, it’s getting late,” Shion said, looking up from fastening his coat. “Nezumi has to go places, so we’re heading back now. You’re okay here, right? If you need anything, you know where to find us.”

“So that you know where not to come barging in unannounced,” Nezumi added, “or at all, for that matter.”

“Be nice, Nezumi.”

“Tsk.”

Shion smiled. “Well, have a good night. And I guess I’ll see you soon again, I’m still helping Inukashi out. Tomorrow?”

“Sure! See you!” Sora cheerfully waved, not catching that sentence that Nezumi muttered under his breath to Shion.

“What did I tell you about promises for tomorrow?”

 _Life really can’t be easy here, huh_ , Riku thought to himself. Still, Shion seemed happy enough, and though Nezumi had his share of thoughts troubling him, it didn’t stop him from bantering with Shion as they walked off.

“Oh, and take care of yourselves around here,” Shion suddenly shouted over his shoulder, after which he had to rush to catch up with Nezumi’s quick stride.

“Will do,” Riku said, quite sure that Shion was out of earshot at that point anyway. He cast a look at Sora next to him, who was already distracted again by the dogs. Careful he would be. Though it seemed relatively calm here at Inukashi’s place, the Heartless were still out there, not to mention a potential other threat if Nezumi’s predictions were accurate. Riku had gotten the feeling Nezumi’s senses were honed and to be relied upon in this case.

 

Sora was rather excited about the whole ‘sleeping in a dog hotel’ bit, and he dragged Riku upstairs to their appointed room as soon as Inukashi announced it was free.

The room was rather empty, but that was just fine. Both boys rolled up their jackets to serve as pillows, and Sora happily welcomed the big, fluffy dog that would serve as their companion for the night.

They laid down on their sides, facing each other, with the dog nestled in between them for warmth. It wasn’t unfamiliar; they’d had plenty of sleepovers sort of like this since they were young, later also with Kairi. Kairi’s presence was quite different from the dog’s, though. For one thing, Kairi usually didn’t snore this loudly, nor did she shed this many hairs.

Seeing how Sora was completely content, Riku decided he could let it slide.

“So this is much nicer than the last nights,” Sora mumbled, sounding like he was halfway to the dream world already. “I like it here.”

“Hm.” Riku tried to look over the dog’s head to see his friend’s face, and noticed with a smile that Sora’s eyes were indeed half-closed. “Don’t get too comfortable. There are still Heartless out there.”

“Yeah, I know. Nothing we can’t handle.” Sora yawned loudly. “’M getting sleepy.”

“Then go to sleep,  don’t be silly. I’m right here.”

He’d said it teasingly, but he kept his eyes on Sora anyway, knowing all too well that at times, sleep didn’t come that easily or comfortably to his friend anymore. Nine out of ten times, he still slept soundly through the night; Riku on the other hand was the one suffering most from nightmares. Sora and Kairi had comforted him more than once during their travels together,  either taking turns or Kairi alone, as Sora was ‘still a lazy bum’ in her words, who would sleep through half the trip if time permitted. Miraculously however, Sora had always been awake whenever Riku woke up during those few times they’d travelled with the two of them so far.

Riku didn’t like waking up to nightmares. He didn’t want to remember, and he didn’t like the look on his friends’ faces, knowing that he’d caused their concern, knowing that he put them through worse before. Even though they wouldn’t have any of it, he couldn’t help feeling the way he did. He’d always, always be grateful for having Sora and Kairi back in his life, for being accepted by them so wholly despite everything.

And so the very least he could do was being there for Sora in return now, even if Sora seemed to need him less than the other way around. He owed him that much.

Sora fell asleep peacefully this night, one arm wrapped around the dog in their middle, his hand almost but not quite touching Riku’s arm.

Riku smiled and closed his eyes.

 

*

 

Entirely unsurprisingly, Riku was the first one awake in the morning. Although maybe Sora could be a little surprised about that, since there was someone else in their middle this time.

The dog seemed perfectly content to keep snoozing, though Sora noticed to his dismay that it had wriggled itself out of Sora’s embrace somewhere during the night. Oh well. He’d done a good job keeping them warm, that was for sure.

He scrambled up to find Riku kneeling next to him, patting off some dog hair from his pants. “Morning, sleepyhead.”

“Oh, come on, it can’t be that late, the dog is still asleep!”

“Yet somehow, all the other guests have already left,” Riku said, smiling a little as Sora busied himself getting his improvised pillow and whipping it sort of back into the general shape of a jacket. “Actually, I think we should leave too.”

“What, why? I like it here!” Even the dog seemed to agree with Sora’s sentiment, as he was slowly opening his eyes and managed to scowl at Riku, though it was maybe sort of possible Sora was projecting his own feelings there a little.

“Me too, but we’re not getting any closer to solving any Heartless problems or finding Kairi from here.” Riku sat back on the floor, his back against the wall. His smile disappeared as he looked at Sora again. “Besides, I saw Inukashi earlier. One of the dogs passed away during the night.”

Sora’s face fell. “Oh no!”

“He was old, but –”

“That doesn’t make it any less sad,” Sora finished Riku’s sentence for him. “Isn’t that a better reason to stay, cheer up Inukashi a bit?”

“Sora, we’re just guests staying at the hotel, not friends.”

“Not with that attitude.” Sora pouted, but he had to hand it to Riku that they had indeed not talked to Inukashi all that much besides their agreement on spending the night here. “At least let me say goodbye, then.”

“Of course.”

 

Inukashi wasn’t really in the mood for goodbyes, which was not all that surprising. Sora tried to express his sympathy, but Inukashi just scoffed and sent them off with a ‘yeah, whatever, don’t get yourself killed’, which was considerate if a little dark and overly pessimistic, Sora thought.

The dog that had spent the night with them saw them off, barking twice before rushing back to the hotel again. Sora weakly smiled. “Heh. So where are we going? Because this doesn’t look familiar.”

“I wanted to try and find that Facility,” Riku said. “If it’s a place where they lock people up for no good reason, I want to check that out. It might be related to the Heartless problem, after all.”

“Right.” It wouldn’t be the first time the darkness had taken a hold of someone in power who then used the Heartless, but Sora wisely didn’t mention that. Riku didn’t like to be reminded of the past all that much, even though Sora had assured him many, many times that he didn’t blame him whatsoever. He was still Riku, and all the things he’d done after had more than made up for anything he still blamed himself for. Sora and Kairi kept reminding him of this on a daily basis, so hopefully soon, Riku would catch up on that for real.

 

It turned out asking about the Facility (Sora still didn’t remember the full name) was about as effective as asking for Kairi the first time around. Some people gave them a confused look before minding their own business again, others actively told them to get lost, and on a side-note, Sora would swear he’d had at least two more Potions in his pocket when he’d left the hotel that morning.

Riku mostly led the way while Sora followed, keeping his eyes and ears open. It was very cold that morning, and the skies were cloudy and threatening to make _some_ thing drop on their heads later that day. Sora kind of hoped it would be snow; it was less wet than rain for one, and he liked the way the world looked when it snowed. It reminded him of Christmas Town and the cheer there, once the Heartless problems had been dealt with properly of course. He still had to take Riku and Kairi there one day. Riku had never really mentioned enjoying his time on other worlds, and Kairi hadn’t seen as much as they had yet. Besides, Sora was kind of curious what kind of outfits they would get in Christmas Town.

 

With Sora’s thoughts distracted, they soon made it out of the marketplace, back into the deserted landscape they’d passed earlier. It was a new part of said deserted landscape; there were more trees here, and the wall was way easier to see.

Sora stopped dead in his tracks when he suddenly saw Riku’s arm flexing in the way he always did whenever he was about to summon his keyblade. Something was close.

The empty branches of a nearby tree rustled, and a Neo Shadow dropped down from above. Sora tried to take care of it at the same time as Riku did; their keyblades clashed together as the Heartless in between had evaporated.

“Huh. I thought it’d be stronger,” Riku said, taking a step back.

“Or maybe we’re just that awesome,” Sora suggested, relaxing his grip on the Kingdom Key a little. “See, maybe it’s not all so bad!”

“Hm.” Riku looked around, observing their surroundings. “We must be quite some way from that marketplace by now, so there should be less Heartless here than when we approached it. Less people here. So why…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, and Sora wondered why for a bit until he heard it in the distance. Something loud and no doubt deafening had they been any closer. Something that sounded very much like explosions, which Sora was unfortunately rather familiar with by now.

“What was…”

Riku cursed under his breath. “On your guard,” he told Sora, who wasted no time getting to Riku’s side, both having the other’s  back.

Just in time, too. They were surrounded; Heartless fell from the trees above their heads, and a black swarm in the direction they’d been heading to promised not much good either.

“Winner gets treated,” Sora shouted, smashing the first Neo Shadow out of the air.

“What, you think they want treats?”

“No, which is why _we’re_ going to win, duh.” Sora turned just in time to see Riku’s grin.

“Fine, challenge accepted. You pay.”

“Not if I defeat more Heartless than you!”

“You’re on!”

 

In the end, they both forgot to keep score. Maybe for the best, because Sora wasn’t sure what they should be treating the other to, anyway. Not many food stands around here.

Sora definitely defeated quite the number of Heartless regardless, teaming up with Riku whenever he could and when his magic permitted. Attacking together had become almost effortless as they’d even managed to do so while in separate realms. A lifetime of play fighting had paid off.

That didn’t mean the battle was over quickly. It was the sheer number of Heartless that was slowly exhausting them, though at least this time Sora didn’t have to face a thousand Heartless alone.

“Last one,” Riku called, the sign for Sora to leap forward and finish the last Shadow with a blow of his keyblade. He high-fived Riku in one smooth motion.

“Did it! And now I’m hungry.”

“Your own fault for losing that apple.”

“Hey!” Sora nudged Riku in the side. “Winner would get treats, remember?”

“Who says you won?”

“Who says I didn’t?” Sora countered, but Riku was already distracted by something else. He was staring in the distance, where the explosion sounds had come from earlier.

“I wonder what that was,” he softly said, more to himself than to Sora. “Heartless?”

Sora followed his gaze, but he saw something else entirely that got his attention. “Hey, Riku! I think it’s our dog!”

“We don’t have a – wait, what?”

“Yeah, look! Over here, boy!” Sora jumped up and down excitedly, waving at the small figure in the distance that rapidly grew bigger. He was delighted to see that he’d guessed correctly and that it was indeed the dog that had kept them warm at night, rather than some new kind of Heartless. “Oomph!” The dog jumped against Sora, almost making him collapse forward by the sudden weight. “Hey, buddy! What are you doing here?”

“I don’t think he’s gonna answer you, Sora,” Riku said, who seemed not appropriately enthusiastic enough by being followed by a dog.

“Hey, you never know, I’ve had stranger things talk to me. What is it? Are you coming to get us?”

Apparently that was the magic word, as the dog barked once and jumped back on the floor, immediately rushing back to the direction he’d come from and looking back expectantly when Sora and Riku stayed behind.

“Eh. I think he really does want us to follow, Riku.”

“You do realize that brings us back to square one, right? We just defeated a ton of Heartless, there weren’t any around the hotel.”

“But what if something happened?” Sora insisted. “What if the Heartless did go to the hotel? And there were explosions, Riku, something is going on there and we have friends there! We have to help!” He caught his own words. “Of course we need to help Kairi too, but she can handle herself. Remember how Axel – I mean Lea – told us how she bit him? And how she escaped when they caught her?”

Riku smirked. “Heh, yeah. And that was before she got a keyblade.”

“Exactly. Now come on, Riku!”

 

The dog wasted no time leading them back they way they’d come, though it was getting more difficult for Sora at least to maneuver as it was getting darker by the minute.

Eventually, the dog stopped on top of a hillside, high enough to overlook the marketplace. Sora was the first to follow, enthusiastically climbing up – and then coming to an almost screeching halt once he was close enough to overview the scene.

“Sora, you alright?” Riku asked, following in his footsteps. “What is – oh. Oh no.”

They were looking at the marketplace, or rather, what was left of it. It was hard to see since they weren’t that high, but it was almost like a crater had struck in the middle. Not many of the original barracks were standing anymore, and if they were, they were reduced to rubble. There was no smoke, no fire. There was just destruction.

Riku let out a deep breath next to him, but said nothing. Sora could only voice the obvious.

“What _happened_?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~It beginssss~ 
> 
> Shion and Sora bonding over puppies? Shion and Sora bonding over puppies.  
> (Also please appreciate my royal mouse pun I worked really hard on that for like five whole minutes at 3 AM ages ago okay.)


	4. The Correctional Facility

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back in the Correctional Facility, Kairi and Safu make plans to get out of the building and find their respective friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please love these ladies as much as I love them okay they're great I just hope I did them justice.

Safu was experiencing something close to a sensory overload at that very moment. Not even half a second ago, they had been surrounded by these creatures called Heartless; now, a shower of fireballs rained down on her and the girl named Kairi with her mysterious and evidently highly lethal weapon, as the big fireball above their heads seemed to have been summoned from it.

Whatever had just happened, it did the trick. The creatures got hit repeatedly by the fireballs and disappeared in puffs of black smoke as the ones before had done. It left the two girls alone in the hallway, even if it might only be for a little while.

“What did you _do_?” Safu said, unable to help herself anymore. She could imagine the weapon being used effectively as a physical weapon, but this – there was no ignition system visible, and even then, no such system could have created the fireballs that had just been formed. And as if by a miracle, Kairi and Safu had come out of it unharmed; just the close proximity to the fireballs should have left a burning sensation, if not burn marks, but Safu had felt nothing on her person other than a kind of comfortable warmth.

“Firaga Burst,” Kairi replied, panting a little from the effort. “Or I tried to, anyway. Told you I’m still training. Did those Heartless hurt you?”

“No – but it surprises me _you_ didn’t hurt me, either. Considering the rate at which those – Heartless got taken out by the flames, I should have experienced a much more intense heat and scorch marks at the very least. Hence my question.”

Kairi blinked a couple of times, eventually offering an uncertain smile. “Well, I didn’t want you to get hurt of course.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Hey!” Kairi’s tone was very vexed, causing Safu to belatedly realize her sentence had been up for various interpretations.

“Well, I meant to say that just your wish not to hurt me couldn’t possibly be enough to contain the flames. That’s not how physics work.” Safu considered this for a moment. “Actually, how did that weapon of yours even produce that fireball? I’ve never seen a weapon quite like it.” She was getting genuinely curious now that the danger seemed gone for the moment. Though Safu had learnt and researched a lot of new topics during her study abroad, they had all been contained within the classroom. She had discussed theories, not practices. Never mind that with the Babylon Treaty, weapons were out of the question to be discussed. It wasn’t that Safu was all that interested in bearing arms herself, but in a situation where she had to defend herself, she’d rather know what her options were.

Kairi didn’t seem to have any response ready for her, instead still smiling. “Ehm. That is a very good question,” she eventually said, “if I just say ‘magic’, you’re not going to take that for an answer, are you?”

“Magic has historically been a way to explain the inexplicable,” Safu said, “I cannot rule out that which we call magic now will be explained by science in a couple of years. It will suffice as an answer, I suppose, though not a very satisfying one.”

 “Right.” Kairi sighed a little. “Well, I guess we have other things to worry about right now, like how we’re going to get out of this place. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really feel like hanging around here longer than necessary.”

“Those creatures might return,” Safu agreed, “Heartless, you called them? You seem familiar with them.”

“I’m mostly here to get rid of them.” Kairi patted her weapon for emphasis. “The plan was to team up with my friends and get to the bottom of the problem here.”

“You need to find a source for these creatures?”

“Yes, indeed.” Kairi looked straight at Safu now. “Do you have any ideas?”

“I cannot say I do. All I can tell you is that this is the first time I have ever heard of them, let alone come across them in reality.”

“Hm. And you’re from inside the city, right?” Kairi asked. “Then maybe I wasn’t in the right place after all. Say, do you know any places where people… how should I say it… have darkness in their hearts?”

“Darkness?” Kairi was speaking in riddles. Or maybe more accurately, she was speaking in metaphors, and Safu wasn’t quite sure how to interpret those. Facts she could deal with. “Hm. I think… maybe the West Block?” she said at last. She wasn’t sure what the West Block was like, but in terms of ‘darkness’, it was the first area she could think of that qualified. “Or maybe right here, in the Correctional Facility. It would most certainly explain why they show up here.”

“Is this a kind of prison?” Kairi asked. “Because Correctional Facility sounds almost… kind, for a prison.”

“The city says it is, true to its name, a facility for the correction of perpetrators of various crimes,” Safu slowly said, “but I must confess I am becoming skeptical of that statement. Regardless, the majority of the convicts here supposedly come from the West Block, where the crime rates are high.”

“So it’s a prison,” Kairi decided.

Safu felt compelled to agree with her even if it wasn’t the word the city used. Considering it had been representatives of the same city that had persecuted Shion for murder and had taken her by force to the Facility without ever stating her crime, her already shaky belief in the city had taken a downfall.

“I don’t like prisons.” Kairi put Safu’s thoughts in much simpler words. “I think we should get out of here as soon as we can and find your friend.”

Safu managed a smile. “I agree.”

 

Kairi took the lead then. It only made sense; out of the two of them, it was clearly Kairi who was more experienced in battle, and these Heartless kept showing up wherever they went. It wasn’t the creatures that bugged Safu, however.

It was too easy.

If she knew one thing about the Correctional Facility, it was that it should be impossible to escape from here. There had been one incident years ago that she knew of, but other than that, it was the most secure facility inside and outside of city walls. Safu had no reliable data to back her up, but she suspected the overall security had to be top class. So how was it that they hadn’t yet come across any guards, that there weren’t any walls coming down or doors closing in their faces?

Maybe these Heartless had done more than just attacking the two girls and had managed to take down all means of security in their path. Or maybe – and that was the option Safu was fearing – there was no need for security since they were heading in precisely the right direction.

 _They wanted me._ Safu had realized that almost immediately, and the words rang through her head again. Her thoughts were racing as she followed Kairi, who rushed through the hallways as if she had any idea where she was going and slashed Heartless left and right.

_They confirmed my name and my ID card, made absolutely sure they had the right person. But why? Why would the Security Bureau take me in such a fashion? They must know about my relations with Shion, and he is wanted. But if it truly was about Shion, they would have accomplished more keeping me conscious, no matter how I struggled. Evidently, they needed to get me somewhere no matter by what means._

She was almost a hundred percent certain that ‘somewhere’ implied the Correctional Facility now.

_Why would they need me? I am an elite, so they should have very good reasons to remove me from society by force. It’s not about Shion. They would have taken his mother, or anyone else. It’s me they wanted._

Safu looked at the girl she had only met a couple of hours before at most. The girl who was fighting for the both of them, but ultimately had no idea who Safu was. She couldn’t call Kairi her friend.

_So I see. I’m all alone… There’s absolutely no-one left anymore who would miss me if I were to disappear… Shion…_

She shook her head to herself as she ran, forcing herself to focus. _This has to be it. They needed an elite, and they needed one they could remove from society as inconspicuously as possible. I have no family left, and I was supposed to be studying abroad for two years. If I hadn’t gone to the bakery, no-one would have even known I was back._

_But what would they need me for? And do they need Kairi for the same purpose, or did they arrest her for a different reason all together?_

“Safu, watch it!”

She jumped aside just in time; Kairi’s weapon cut through the air and swept aside a Heartless.

“Whew, that was just in time. Sorry, I’m used to Sora and Riku as teammates,” Kairi said, flicking a lock of her hair behind her shoulder. “You don’t have your own keyblade, of course.”

“Keyblade? Is that what it’s called?” It was a rather imaginative name, Safu supposed, considering the weapon was decorated with flowers. Calling it a blade seemed rather liberal, but she had seen Kairi wield it as one. The general shape was indeed reminiscent of a key, albeit a very oversized one.

“Yep. Want a closer look?” Kairi didn’t give her a chance to reply, but rather pushed the weapon in Safu’s hands immediately.

Safu took it hesitantly, feeling a strange energy coming from the weapon. Though it wasn’t a scientific approach, she could understand why Kairi had used the word ‘magic’ to describe what it did. Something about the keyblade almost felt… alive.

When she looked up, it was to Kairi’s expectant look. “Go on, give it a sweep, see how it feels!”

Safu was kind of taken aback by Kairi’s sudden lack of attention to their surroundings, so she decided not to make a show of it and quickly swept the blade back and forth, slashing through the air in a move reminiscent of what Kairi had done earlier.

Safu wasn’t particularly impressed by her own skills, but Kairi had clasped her hands together and seemed rather enthusiastic. “That’s great! You could be a wielder in no time!”

“I have more confidence in you wielding this weapon here,” Safu said, carefully handing the weapon back to its rightful owner. “I don’t quite trust myself with a weapon I have no experience handling.”

“You’d be a natural,” Kairi still insisted, but she did take back her keyblade now. “I like you as a teammate, Safu. Come on, let’s move and get us out of here.” She seized Safu’s hand and gave it a little squeeze before she dragged her along, totally ignoring any kind of social boundaries.

Safu found her overall presence remarkably comforting.

 

*

 

Kairi had quite frankly no idea where she was going or what she was doing, but since she was slaying Heartless and accompanying Safu, she felt rather useful anyway. Whatever the case, she had to get to the bottom of this Heartless problem, and it seemed to have deeper roots than they’d thought in the first place.

She was glad to have Safu with her. The girl was quick with both her brain and her movements, and she’d managed to fight off some Heartless by herself before. Kairi knew from experience how difficult that could be, even with just Shadows.

Positive things aside, she had to find a way out of this place, and fast. The problem was that she had no idea where the exit could be, and Safu didn’t seem to know the Facility from the inside either.

Kairi kept running as fast as she could, keeping an eye on the girl behind her as she decided to turn left or right, taking the stairs at one point as she started to feel they were running in circles.

They couldn’t keep this up forever. Kairi knew it, and she realized it all the more when she felt her magic taking longer and longer to return and saw how Safu seemed to grow more tired by the second.

They’d reached a calm spot on the second floor they reached, and so Kairi pulled Safu with her against a small indent in the wall, a little private corner they could sit in as they caught their breaths.

“It’s too quiet,” Safu eventually said, not having spoken up since Kairi had handed her the keyblade.

“Really? I thought there were plenty of Heartless to keep us busy.”

“It’s not that.” Safu shifted a little and pulled her knees up. “I mean that we should have run into security officials by now. I was put under arrest. They were going to take me to the Security Bureau until I refused to cooperate, or so they said. It is supposedly impossible to break out of the Correctional Facility, so how come we are able to wander around freely?”

“Maybe someone is using the Heartless for that?” Kairi offered. “They follow their instinct, but they can be controlled.”

Safu pondered this. “I’m not sure. I cannot rule it out, if only because I’m not familiar to these creatures. On the other hand, we have been able to take them out with relative ease, though it appears your weapon has been most helpful.”

“It is the best way to defeat them,” Kairi had to admit, deciding to leave out the little tidbit about how keyblades also lured in the Heartless. “But you’re right, there are other ways.” She hadn’t expected ‘bare fists’ being one of those ways, though now that she thought of it, Sora had mentioned a girl by the name of Tifa who had shown up to punch some walls and who had helped in the Heartless fight. Safu, too, could most certainly hold her own in a fight.

“In that case, other captives should be able to take them out at least temporarily,” Safu continued. “Even if these Heartless are used as a guard, they cannot possibly be the only measure. They are moving creatures with their own intentions, too unreliable. I was thinking of cameras.”

“Cameras?”

“Yes. Considering the surveillance satellites inside the city are able to discern objects as small as fifty centimeters and track these above the ground, it stands to reason that they have similar techniques to keep track of what is going on inside the Facility. Security cameras most likely. Sensors. We should have long since been spotted, but in reality, no-one has followed us ever since our escape from the car. This is worrying me.”

“Oh.” Kairi slumped down a bit in their small hiding spot and thought over those words. “You think we’re walking right into a trap.”

“More or less, yes.”

“That’s not good.” Kairi weakly smiled. “Glad I have you on my team then. You’re really smart, huh?”

“Objectively, my school grades have always been in the top percentage and I have been elected for the gifted curriculum. I would call myself smart, but I have come to realize over the last weeks that a high IQ does not necessarily mean one understands the world.”

“Heh.” Kairi suppressed a laugh as she thought of her friends and compared them. No matter how fondly she thought of Sora, he wasn’t exactly the brightest in terms of intelligence, but he definitely knew how to make friends and get around the worlds. “You have a point. What do you mean, the last weeks?”

“Being away from No. 6 has made me realize certain things,” Safu said, rather vaguely considering how exact she had been in her previous statements. “Of course, since my study was cut short so abruptly, I didn’t have the opportunity to explore these.”

“Because you had to go look for Shion?”

“Because my grandmother passed away.” Safu was staring pointedly at her own feet now. “I had to return from my exchange program. She was the only family I had left.” She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. Usually I don’t talk this much to strangers, but I find it… comforting to tell you, even if I have trouble expressing these feelings.”

 “It’s alright – I’m so sorry for your loss,” Kairi hurried to say. “And then you found out about Shion being missing right after?”

“He is a fugitive, according to the official broadcasts,” Safu said. She looked up now with determination drawn all over her face. “He got out of being taken to the Correctional Facility. He is in the West Block, and I’m going to see him. I _need_ to see him.”

“Then we’re going to get you to him.” Kairi got up resolutely and seized Safu by the hand. “Come on. Oh, wait – _cure_.”

Safu’s eyes widened at the green sparks that Kairi’s magic brought with it, and she gave Kairi an incredulous stare when the spell apparently did what it was supposed to do. “How is that _possible_? I know medical treatments have advanced considerably in No. 6, but not quite to the point of being able to invigorate someone with a simple touch.”

“I told you, magic,” Kairi said with a broad grin. “Come on, on your feet! Safu, I know how you feel. I don’t like waiting either, I went to find my friends too. We’re going to find your Shion and get you to him.”

Safu carefully rose to her feet, straightened her torn up coat. “You are being very friendly to someone you have just met.”

“Well, I think you’re a nice person, Safu. Of course I’m being friendly to you.”

“That is – persistently optimistic.”

 “Learnt that from the best.” Kairi summoned her keyblade just in case. “Just like this – you’re never alone, okay? You can count on me as your ally now, and we’re going to find your friend.”

Safu managed a smile now. “Weren’t you looking for your own friends?”

“Yep, and they’ve got another thing coming when I find them. But they can look after themselves until then,” Kairi told her, still holding onto Safu’s hands. “Let’s go.”

 

Safu was a great person to have on her side, Kairi found that out very quickly. Though she didn’t have any weapons, she was agile enough to avoid the Heartless attacks, and she could kick hard if need be. Besides that, Kairi quickly gathered that when Safu had asked if she was an elite, she’d meant ‘like me’. Although Safu wasn’t a Keyblade Master, she definitely excelled in knowledge and logical reasoning.

In practice, it mostly meant that Safu was very fascinated by Kairi’s magic and kept trying to explain it in scientific terms, though she couldn’t think of reasons why Kairi was able to summon elemental magic out of thin air with only the aid of her keyblade. Kairi had no answers there; she had always just kind of… accepted magic in her life. Some things were strange and inexplicable. Some things had spells cast on them; other times you wielded magical weapons yourself, and if you weren’t careful, they were used against you. Kairi had learnt those lessons well, especially in the last couple of months.

Safu was taking the lead now, mumbling to herself about directions they should take and what would be the most logical route outside of the Facility. Kairi gave her cover, but the Heartless were slowly retreating. She wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad sign, considering the creatures were drawn in by the power of the keyblade. Either they had gotten the message the two girls weren’t to be messed with, or they were drawn to something else. If the latter was the case, Kairi was suspecting they hadn’t faced the worst yet.

She hadn’t told Safu any of this, but she figured she’d picked up on most of it anyway.

 

“We should have run into people by now,” Safu eventually said, stopping so abruptly in her tracks that Kairi quite literally ran into her.

“Whoa, sorry!” She had to seize Safu’s arm in order not to fall over. “Okay, so it’s too easy.”

“Yes, it is becoming worrisome. I mostly know of the Correctional Facility by word of mouth, but it is a fairly large building,” Safu pondered out loud. “Evidently the convicts are kept in a different part of it, so there has to be another use for the rooms in the halls we have been wandering thus far. Investigations, research… They should be at work now. I was honestly suspecting we would find researchers here.”

“Right. ‘Facility’, not ‘prison’,” Kairi recalled, “you don’t think they are lying about the research part?”

“I won’t deny the possibility is very likely. I just wonder what other purpose the building serves, and frankly, the alternatives I can think of are quite – disturbing.”

Safu didn’t look like she was joking about that, so Kairi decided not to ask for specifics. Instead, she thought of something else to ask and hopefully distract Safu a little, as the look on her face had grown stern. “Alright. So, tell me about Shion, then.”

Safu blinked in surprise. “Excuse me? I wouldn’t think that he’s relevant to the current conversation.”

“Probably not, but that seems like a nicer topic.” Kairi gave her a sheepish grin. “And he’s your motivation now, right? So tell me, why do you like him so much?”

“That’s speculation on your part,” Safu said abruptly, though a faint pink color dyed her cheeks ever so slightly. “I never stated anything about feelings of that nature.”

 “Oh, come on, we’re breaking out of not-prison for him and you were planning on going to an area you just described as the darkness in this world just to see him. Clearly he’s not someone you _dis_ like.” Kairi clasped her hands behind her back and studied Safu for a bit, wondering if and how she was going to reply. She didn’t intend to tease her incessantly; she knew from experience how quickly that one grew old. Still, she was curious, and if she was going to hang out with Safu a little longer, she might as well ask.

“He’s – my friend,” Safu said after a short silence. “My very good friend.”

“I see.” Kairi grinned more broadly. “Told him you like him yet?”

“I did.” That was way more straight-forward all of a sudden. “He told me to ask again in two years.”

“What, really? What a bonehead.”

Safu actually chuckled at that. “He is, hm. Truth being told, last time I saw him there was something on his mind. Someone. I don’t know who or how he feels about them exactly. I don’t care. I just want to see him again – how selfish of me.”

“Maybe. But it was a little selfish of him too not to give you a straight answer right away, if you ask me.” Kairi softly squeezed her hand, hopefully being encouraging enough. “But you like him and you think of him as your very good friend, so he must be a good person. If he’s in a dark place like you said, he’d probably like a friendly face around, don’t you think? So we’re gonna find him and make you two meet again, I promise. Even if it doesn’t work out, you’re still friends. Let’s go get that friend of yours back, we can deal with whatever creepy things go on in here on our way.”

Safu weakly smiled. “Your optimism is almost contagious.”

“Good,” Kairi said, deciding right there she’d interrogated Safu enough about this Shion. Besides, there were other things on her mind, more pressing things.

The Heartless problem was very real, and she didn’t trust it that they seemed to had retreated for now. She had a feeling that something big was coming, something very big and very dark. She knew she could trust her own senses when it came to darkness, and Riku had been teaching her how to respond to it before she could see it with her eyes. Still, she was in training, and she didn’t want her new friend getting hurt because of her own inexperience.

“Okay, something else. Hang on…” Kairi mentally went through her inventory, recalling any kind of weapon she could give to Safu to defend herself. Unfortunately, she only had a couple of keychains, fairly useless since she had no spare keyblade to offer to Safu if she could even wield one in the first place, though Kairi was pretty optimistic about that. Attaching a keychain to something else, then? She did have a small collection of fairly useless items, having taken after Sora’s habit to pick up anything that could be remotely useful. Nothing resembling a weapon among those, however. Hm. Wait.

She smiled and went through her keychains.

 

*

 

Kairi was rummaging her bag for a little and took out something small. “Here, take this and keep it close. It’s for luck.”

Safu gave the item that was being pushed in her hands a good look. “It’s a bee,” she stated, which was true enough as the metal object was indeed shaped and colored like a honey bee. It was also rather large and attached to a chain.

“You use these for keyblades,” Kairi explained, “they… eh, never mind the details, but they can change shape. This one makes it into the keyblade Sweet Memories. My friend Sora got this one for me, said he’d gotten an upgraded version or something. Anyway, this one brings you luck in fights. Well, it does for keyblades, so let’s say it’s a good luck charm, then.”

Kairi looked at her expectantly, which Safu guessed was reasonable after all other questions she had asked thus far regarding keyblades. Though it was true that Safu had many questions about the facts Kairi had just announced about her weapon, the words wouldn’t quite form on her lips. Safu had noted the way Kairi spoke the name of her friend, the look in her eyes, her slight avoidance at looking at Safu as she handed over the item. This was something she had received from someone important to her, and she was willing to part with it for Safu, whom she had only just met. It was oddly… touching.

“Thank you,” Safu quietly said, wrapping her hands around the design and its chain.

“Sure. Oh, right.” Kairi now reached for something else – Safu couldn’t quite see where she was getting it from, but the next moment, she was holding a little bottle, blue but with green contents. “How many of these could you carry, you think?”

“Hm.” Safu looked at the bottle, trying to estimate weight and dimensions. “In an educated guess, I would say about four, if I can keep them in the pockets of my coat.” The coat she now noticed was looking worse for the wear, as she was missing a button and one sleeve had been torn. The pockets were still functional; one of them was developing a small hole, but not big enough to make the bottle slip through.

 “Great!” Kairi promptly produced three more bottles, so quickly that Safu would almost dare to swear it was out of thin air, despite the physical impossibility. She handed all of them over to Safu. “Now, when we go into battle, I can’t always reach for these myself. So if one of us is feeling down, we drink one, okay? It’s not poison, I promise. I got you one of these before.”

Safu took the bottles with full confidence. “I trust you.” It was the truth, she realized. Though she had only very recently met the other girl, Kairi had done everything to help her, and she did indeed recall that strange fluid in her mouth that had made her recover faster than she could account for. Kairi was shrouded in mysteries and abilities Safu couldn’t explain with all her knowledge, but she had shown kindness and aided a total stranger, trusting her on her word.

“Thanks.”Kairi broadly smiled. “You’re my partner in arms now. Let’s go take out some Heartless and whatever else we can find!”

 

Safu very quickly realized her self-proclaimed ‘partner in arms’ had had training in battle, even if she wasn’t an expert. She led the way now as if following some instinct, while Safu just felt a slight but very present shiver of discomfort in the direction they were heading.

  Kairi was no longer holding back as she might have done before. Her wielding of the keyblade was confident and accurate; although they didn’t run into many Heartless, Kairi took care of them in seconds. She no longer employed the technique she had declared ‘magic’, or maybe she was conserving her energy. As for what, Safu only had inklings, which she couldn’t say she liked.

Kairi’s presence was comforting somehow, and Safu noticed how she herself was quickly turning more agile in battle even if she couldn’t fight very offensively, lacking a weapon to do so. She had always been quick on her feet and she was in rather good physical shape as by city orders: she had had plenty of physical exercise and she had been rather good at gymnastics. The balance beam wasn’t going to help her here of course, but it did give her good balance and agility to keep up with Kairi and avoid any direct attacks.

Just before they turned a corner, Kairi suddenly stopped. “Stay right behind me,” she told Safu, sounding more serious than she had on any previous occasion yet. “Try to follow my every move and stay out of sight. They’re not very strong, but they are unpredictable in their movements. You don’t want to get hurt by them.”

Safu simply nodded, figuring that asking who ‘they’ were was probably not going to result into any satisfying answer. She assumed they were Heartless, albeit a slightly different type than the small ones they had run into so far and which Kairi had named ‘Shadows’, which was as accurate a name as it was uninspired compared to ‘keyblade’ and ‘Sweet Memories’.

She clutched the keychain Kairi had given her earlier, which gave her a slight boost in confidence no matter how irrational it was. “Let’s go.”

 

Safu barely got a good look of the new creatures they faced once they turned around the corner. Kairi charged in, keyblade in hand, clearly no longer intending to keep anything back, and Safu had trouble keeping up with her pace.

Their opponents appeared to be floating balls of darkness, mostly spherical bodies that sprouted several appendices, and they were _fast_. They charged right back at Kairi, who was expecting them and met them with a swing of her keyblade. From behind her, Safu witnessed how Kairi took out three or four of them with swift, calculated movements. She was clearly experienced, though she still possessed a certain recklessness in her actions.

That recklessness meant that Kairi focused on only a couple of these floating orbs right in front of her, and Safu had neglected to keep an eye on their wider surroundings. She only barely managed to catch Kairi as she was knocked over by a couple of the dark orbs coming from the side. “Are you alright?”

“Had worse,” Kairi muttered, seizing her head. Her physical state contradicted her words, or at least the way she tried to brush off Safu’s concern.

Safu belatedly remembered the bottles she’d been entrusted with, and rushed to retrieve one from her pocket. “Here. Ehm, can you…”

“Thanks.” Kairi expertly removed the cap and emptied the bottle in just a couple of seconds. It did its trick, whatever it could be; Kairi rose back to her feet again and smiled at Safu. “Thanks. Take one too if you’re feeling faint, okay?”

Safu numbly nodded, grateful enough that Kairi seemed to do better now. She’d caught a whiff of the scent of the liquid in the bottle, enough to say with almost absolute certainty that it was the same liquid she had tasted when she had come to her senses in the car. It seemed so long ago that it was easy enough to forget she only knew Kairi for – how long had it truly been? Half a day? Her perception of time passing had most certainly be warped after one after the other confrontation with the improbable. Maybe a couple of months ago or as recently as just last week, Safu would have still said ‘impossible’.

With Kairi back into battle, the floating orbs were soon decimated, even though Safu was getting the sense they just kept reappearing, considering their numbers.

“Argh!”

Safu was just in time to witness Kairi being knocked off her feet, hard enough for her to lose her grip on her weapon. The keyblade fell on the ground right in front of her, but Kairi had landed on her arms and was incapable of reaching out for it immediately.

Quite unfortunately, the floating orbs seemed to sense her momentary helplessness, and Safu had less than a second to decide on her own course of action.

She dove into Kairi’s direction, picking up the keyblade in one swoop, and swung it around as she would have with a baseball bat. She wasn’t entirely sure if this was a very effective way of wielding the weapon or if it was simply because she had the element of surprise on her hand, but at the very least, she managed to hit one of the orbs hard enough to knock it back into its peers. It bought her a couple of precious seconds.

“Safu?” Kairi’s voice came from behind her as its owner was scrambling up, looking at Safu with widened eyes. “Did you just use my keyblade?”

“Ah, my apologies.” She quickly stretched out the weapon for Kairi to take it back.

“No, no, it’s just… wow,” Kairi said, sounding impressed for reasons Safu couldn’t quite discern. “And thanks.”

Kairi took her weapon back, and Safu felt her hands tingle strangely for slightly longer after they were freed of their load.

There was no time for chats or asking for explanations, since the floating orbs had recovered from Safu’s little surprise and swarmed the girls again. This time, Kairi was prepared on all sides, though she started to stumble and Safu had to offer her another one of the bottles to keep her on her feet.

“Phew.” Kairi leant on her keyblade as she had defeated the final one of their enemies at long last. “We should still be careful, Darkballs usually have company.”

_Clap, clap, clap._

The sudden noise came from around the corner.

Safu quickly went back to Kairi’s side, seeking both cover and companionship. _What is next?_

“Oh, well done. I am impressed.” It was a man’s voice, but its owner stayed out of sight just a little longer. It was enough for Safu to decide quite abruptly that she pertinently did not like this voice. It sounded – conceited. If he was indeed impressed, it was not because of them. Safu would have to see a face to make sure of her analysis, however.

 “Show yourself,” Kairi said loudly, visibly worn out from her earlier battle but readying her keyblade for what was to come. “Who are you?”

“My name is of no importance to you.” A man appeared now, taking the step that took him out of the corner out of the girls’ sight. He was smiling in the conceited way Safu had detected in his voice, and his hands were still clasped together as if he had been applauding them just now. He was donning a white lab coat, and the neon lights above his head reflected off his glasses. “At last we meet, Safu, SSC-000124GJ. And let us not forget your rather _interesting_ friend here.”

Kairi took a step forward to shield Safu, giving her a concerned look. “You know this guy?”

“I have never seen him before in my life.” Safu looked straight into the man’s eyes, finding it difficult to read him or to even determine his age accurately. He was a man in a white coat, studying them as if they were… specimens? “You are the one who asked for my presence here, aren’t you.” Safu wasn’t as much asking as she was stating this fact.

“Very accurate analysis. Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, our elite girl.” The man stopped his stride, standing still a couple of feet away from the girls, seemingly comfortable to speak to them from that point. “You did outdo my expectations when you made it all the way to this floor, however. Most test subjects do not last this far when confronted with our, ah, experiment.”

 _It was a test after all. No wonder we only had to deal with the creatures_. “You tracked us all this time. From the moment we left the car.”

“Naturally.” The man laughed without humor. “I hope you didn’t honestly think you could roam these halls freely. Though perhaps we have given you a little more time than usual. That is quite an unusual weapon your friend has.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kairi said through clenched teeth. “ _You’re_ the one summoning the Heartless!”

“Very unusual indeed,” the man said, apparently not taken by surprise by Kairi’s statement and not attempting to contradict her. “Yes, I think you will prove to be very valuable for research too. What a fateful coincidence.”

Safu’s inner thoughts kept going as the man spoke. ‘ _Too’. So he_ is _planning to use me for research. I wonder if it is related to the Heartless experiment or if he has something different in mind._

“You’re not going to use us for anything!” Kairi shouted, shielding Safu entirely now with both her body and the keyblade she held stretched out. “We’re taking care of these Heartless, and then we’re going to leave this place!”

“Oh, dear. What a refreshingly naïve thought.” The man in the white coat smirked. “You truly thought I was talking to you just to make idle conversation, giving you the time to plan your way out? Oh no, I am afraid the way out is blocked for you, and has been ever since you were taken here. But not to worry. We have prepared the best rooms for you. We just need to make some minor adjustments before you can move in.” He snapped his fingers, and something moved from his shadow.

Safu hadn’t been allowed to read very diverse literature or art in her studies in No. 6, and with her exchange program cut short, her understanding of symbolism was still very limited. Still, she felt confident to compare what appeared next to the symbolism commonly associated with ‘the Devil’.

Judging by Kairi’s swift reactions with her keyblade, it had to be another Heartless, but it was a formidable one. The dark creature towered over them and it possessed horns, a long, sharp-ended tail and two pairs of small wings, one pair attached to its forearms instead of its back. Most distinctly, it bore a sword – quite unlike Kairi’s keyblade and more resembling an actual sword, although it was blunt. Judging by Kairi’s panicked movements, Safu guessed that this bluntness was deceptive.

“Get out of the way!” Kairi shouted to Safu as she shoved her aside and raised her keyblade to point upwards. “Thunder!”

A blinding flash of light came crashing down, but when Safu looked up, the creature seemed barely affected by the attack an raised its sword.

“Kairi!”

“Go _away_! Stay out of the way, it’s too dangerous! Run while you can, go see Shion!”

Safu decided not to push the matter any further and broke into a sprint, back into the hallway they had come from. In an impulse, she grasped the keychain Kairi had given her and squeezed it tightly.

Upon almost immediate evaluation, she truly should have known better than taking this turn.

Safu was seized by her arms before she had any chance to realize whom she had run into. A familiar shock near her neck taught her enough.

*

 

Kairi huffed as she landed back on the floor, barely dodging the ring of fire the Invisible had created around her for the third time in a row. She was quickly running out of strength, and she didn’t have much magic left.

 _Safu should still have a Hi-potion_ …

But Safu was nowhere in sight, which was both good and worrying. She was out of reach of the Invisible, but where _was_ she?

Kairi quickly took a look around. “Safu?”

It turned out to be an almost fatal distraction.

The Invisible struck down his sword; Kairi didn’t see him in time and was only barely fast enough to ward him off with her keyblade going by her other senses. _Thank you for those lessons, Riku._

She hadn’t fought any Invisibles before since the Heartless threat had diminished on other worlds, courtesy of Sora. According to him, she was very lucky this one was alone.

“You won’t… get me,” she said, gasping as she scrambled back on her feet.

The Invisible raised its sword again, but this time, Kairi was prepared. Destiny’s Embrace came down with a loud _thud_ on the monster’s shoulder, and it staggered momentarily in surprise.

“Fire! Freeze! Thunder!”

Kairi fired off her last remaining spells, hoping fervently this would be enough. She had run out of potions she could carry by herself – it was all or nothing now.

“Eat this!” She struck her keyblade across the Invisible’s abdomen, channeling all her frustration and anger over this place into it.

It did the trick. The Invisible looked like it might cry out for a second, but abruptly disappeared in a puff of black smoke that lingered for several seconds.

Kairi sank to her knees in relief, Destiny’s Embrace clattering on the floor next to her. “I did it…”

“Oh, well done.”

It was the same man in the white coat. Despite being worn out, Kairi felt an overwhelming desire to take up her weapon again and give him a piece of her mind, but she could barely even catch her breath right now.

“Yes, very impressive. Kairi, wasn’t it? I believe we have something special in our hands with you.”

He was closer to her than she’d thought; Kairi looked up to see the man mere inches away from her, looking down on her with a satisfied smile. “I think you can tell us fascinating things, Kairi.”

“Bite me,” Kairi grunted, one hand back on her keyblade. “Where’s Safu?”

“Oh, she is in very good hands now. She will be, shall we say, prepared for her new room right here in the Facility. I was thinking of the top floor.”

“You let Safu go!”

She was too slow; the man’s foot landed down on Destiny’s Embrace, and the keyblade disintegrated into light with the impact. _Shoot. Come back, come back…_

“You are not commanding me.” The man’s voice was cold all of a sudden – sterile, almost. Not a trace of any emotion, except maybe contempt. “Your role here has been played, key girl. Yes, I do think I know just the room for you.”

 _Come_ back _!_

Kairi’s keyblade appeared again under her hand, finally responding to her inner pleas. _I’ll come and get you, Safu. We’re getting out of here, I don’t care what that guy says._

That thought gave her enough strength to get back to her feet and raise her keyblade again. She’d run out of magic, but that didn’t mean her physical attacks were useless. The man in the white coat appeared to be just that, a man – if she could just immobilize him for a while, giving herself some time to get away…

She felt something cold and metal in her neck right then. Unfortunately, she had felt this before.

“I didn’t think so. We wouldn’t want you to get hurt, would we?”

Kairi had her own thoughts about that, starting somewhere with ‘who is the one siccing an Invisible on us then’, but decided not to voice them. “Right.” _Maybe I can distract them, maybe if I…_

She felt a shock in her neck as if struck by thunder, and her body went numb.

_I’m sorry, Safu… Sora, Riku…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy


	5. Inukashi's Hotel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sora and Riku realize that Heartless might be the least of their problems in No. 6.

In the end, it was quickly decided what their course of action should be. Riku highly suspected Sora wouldn’t have it any other way, anyway. They were going to follow the dog back to the hotel and check on their newly made friends. Riku just fiercely hoped they were alright, or at least in one piece. He didn’t want Sora having to find out that… well. It was selfish in his own way, but he wanted to shield Sora from that hurt. He’d been through enough already, and he suspected Sora hadn’t even told him half the things from his journeys throughout other worlds. He’d been to the Land of Dragons himself and had seen what had happened there; Sora had been close when those fires had burnt, and who knew what else he’d seen while Riku was hiding in the shadows. He’d tried to follow him, but of course he didn’t know every single thing Sora had been through.

And really, Riku just wanted to see Sora smile and know that he meant it. Selfish indeed.

 

As it had gotten dark, Riku thought it was for the best if they spent the night on the hillside. There really was no telling now what was hiding in the darkness, and at least here they could be fairly sure it would ‘only’ be the Heartless. He still had no idea what had happened to the people below, but he rather doubted at this point that it had been caused by Heartless alone.

Sora, naturally, wouldn’t have any of that and insisted they’d go down right there and then, though he had to revise his plan slightly once he tripped at least three times in his attempt to take the rocky path over the hill.

“Oh, come on, Riku! I know you can find your way blindfolded!”

“Not here I don’t. I’ve only been here once, I’d trip over everything too.”

“Liar.” Sora pouted. “You’ve been teaching Kairi how to use her other senses, why not me too?”

“Because you’re impatient is why.” Riku pointedly sat down on the ground, patting next to him in an attempt to convince the dog to stay here, too. It didn’t need much convincing. “And you already follow your heart. It suits you, and we’re there if you ever get lost anyway.”

 “Oh, really?”

When Riku looked up, it was to Sora’s bright grin. “I thought we’d proven that by now.”

“I guess you did, huh.” Thankfully Sora took that opportunity to flop down next to him, but he was still grinning. “Right. But I’m the ‘total sap’ here and not you, got it.”

Riku felt his face heat up quickly at that. “You’re not gonna let that one go any time soon, are you.”

“No worries, Riku, I won’t tell. You can be your totally sappy self with me and pretend that you’re actually cool to everyone else.” He pondered that for a moment. “Although I don’t think Kairi buys that,” he then added, “or the King, really. And I think Donald and Goofy don’t, either, and…”

 “Point taken. Now go snooze before I cast Sleep on you.” Riku gently shoved him aside, furiously hoping that his cheeks weren’t as bright red as they felt.

 

It was a short night.

Sora slept rather restlessly, kicking Riku in the shins on one occasion and waking up the dog in between them with an abrupt smack of his arms. The dog had jumped up yelping, Sora had been wide awake immediately, and Riku had slowly opened his eyes to find his best friend falling over himself in his attempts to apologize to the dog.

As soon as the sun was rising, Sora was up, anxious as he was to get back to his friends as quickly as possible. “Get up, Riku, we should go.”

“Good morning to you, too.” Riku heaved a deep sigh, resigned himself to the fact Sora wouldn’t calm down until they’d gone back to the hotel now anyway, and found the strength he needed to get up.

 

The dog led the way to the hotel, though Riku started to suspect it was taking a detour. He didn’t recognize the path they walked this time and it seemed to take much longer too, though of course, they were also just impatient to arrive.

The destruction was showing more and more the closer they got to the area. Their new path didn’t lead them through the market place, but from what they’d seen from above, there wasn’t much left of it anyway. Maybe the dog had made the right decision to avoid the area after all.

With some loud barks, the dog announced their arrival at the hotel and then went inside. At least the building was still standing, though of course, it had already been in ruins beforehand.

Sora trailed after the dog and followed it inside, forcing Riku to follow him in turn.

“Inukashi? Shion? Nezumi?”

Riku felt someone’s presence before he heard them. “Who the… Oh, it’s you guys.” 

Sora still got a shock out of Inukashi suddenly appearing in front of them, looking anything but pleased to see them again. “I thought you’d buzzed off?”

“We heard the explosions,” Riku clarified, shifting a little in front of Sora just in case. “We wanted to see if you were alright.”

Inukashi snorted. “Took your sweet time to get here, then. That was yesterday.”

“Didn’t want to get caught up in the crossfire,” Riku returned, pointedly ignoring Sora’s judging and pouting stare which very loudly proclaimed _well, if it had been up to me…_ despite Sora not saying a word.

 “Huh. Well, there was no fire, but the place is wrecked, man, didn’t you see?”

“ _You_ seem alright,” Sora said, “so where are Shion and Nezumi?”

Inukashi avoided his stare with a click of the tongue. “Gone.”

Riku made a quick enough turn to see all color draining from Sora’s face at that word. “What?!”

“Swept up in the Manhunt,” Inukashi said, arms crossed, “well, that was the plan anyway. I dunno if they made it. Either they got buried alive or they were rounded up and taken to the Correctional Facility. The first might actually be the better option, but who knows.”

“ _Correctional_ Facility, that was it,” Sora mumbled weakly, screwing up his face as he was trying to catch up with what Inukashi had said. It was a lot to take in at once. Manhunt? Rounded up? Correctional Facility?

“Is – is the Manhunt what it sounds like?” Riku asked, for which he was promptly awarded with a quite spectacular glare from Inukashi.

“No man, that’s what we call all our parties here in the West Block. Of _course_ it’s what it sounds like, geesh, and here I was thinking Shion was slow catching up with things. At least he had the excuse of being from No. 6. You just come waltzing in here pretending you’re all world-wise or some shit.”

Inukashi sounded more than a little agitated, but Riku was doubting it was just his oblivious question that did the trick. Something more was going on. Riku had been around enough people scheming to notice that Inukashi was bothered by something else.

Of course, that flew right over Sora’s head. “Wait, but – hunt? Weren’t they going into the Facility to save Safu? Did something go wrong?”

“Nope. It’s the easiest way in.” Inukashi shrugged. “If you survive, of course. I dunno, Nezumi’s with him. That piece of vermin is hard to get rid of, but it’s even harder to get out of that place alive.”

Sora was growing more restless by the minute, leaning from one foot onto the other, probably eager to go and save his new friends from this hunt.

Inukashi seemed restless too, however, occasionally looking back at a closed door as if something could pop up at any second that should stay hidden.

That was when Riku heard it, and judging by the quick turn of his head, so did Sora.

It was a cry; it wasn’t a dog, it sounded too human to be a dog, even one of Inukashi’s. No, there was someone there and whoever it was, they were young and not happy.

“Shit,” Inukashi softly cursed, giving up with the hiding and quickly opening that closed door. “I told you to shut it! Isn’t all you need milk and sleep? Then go to sleep!”

Curiosity got the better of Sora, who leaned in over Inukashi’s shoulder. His eyes opened wide immediately. “Is that a – baby?”

“Ugh.” Inukashi groaned and opened the door completely to let them in. “Yeah, it is. You can thank your best buddy for that one.”

Riku felt Sora’s eyes resting on him all of a sudden, and he backed off immediately. “What? N-no, I swear I didn’t – _Sora_!”

Inukashi snorted. “Not silver here, you moron. I meant Shion. Crap, I thought he was the biggest airhead I’d ever met, but you’re giving him a run for his money here.”

They followed Inukashi inside the rather small room. It was probably once a back office of sorts, and on the ratty couch was a dog that had its body protectively wrapped around a little package under a familiar coat. The package was crying and a small leg was sticking out.

“Shion dumped him in my care,” Inukashi grumbled, but proceeded to tuck the baby back in anyway. “He better gets back for him soon.”

“He seems happy enough here,” Sora managed to conclude with one look. He’d knelt down in front of the couch, and though the dog was growling at him, it did allow him to take a peek and grasp the baby’s hand when it reached out to him. “Hey, little guy. What’s your name?”

“Shion.” Inukashi scoffed. “Serves him right for dumping him on me. But enough with it, why did you come back here?”

 “To help, of course. We were going to save Shion’s friend,” Sora lightly said, both to the little Shion and Inukashi. “Where is this Facility? We can just go in after them, and…”

“Are you actually crazy?!” Inukashi sounded both exasperated and angry, enough to scare the baby into silence. “You don’t just _walk into_ the Facility, Spike! Why the hell do you think those two got swept up in the Manhunt on purpose? Because it’s so freaking easy to just knock on the door and walk in? Be my guest and try, but at best you’re gonna get arrested and you ain’t getting out of those prison blocks, ever.”

Riku had seized Sora’s arm by instinct, keeping him close just in case. “We get it,” he said, sharing a look with Sora and realizing instantly that Sora got it and still wasn’t going to budge on his resolve to save Shion’s friend. If anything, he seemed even more determined to save Shion and Nezumi too from their uncertain fates. “No barging into Facilities. Is there anything else we can do to help?”

Inukashi  grunted, but seemed to consider the option. “Well, we have a plan.”

“A plan?”

“For getting them inside where they need to be,” Inukashi clarified in response to Sora, “ _if_ they get in, that is. Nezumi left quite some detailed instructions, the bastard. Not even around and he still bosses people around. But it’s gonna get pretty dangerous.”

Sora’s confident grin was back.  “Danger we can handle, right, Riku?”

 

Sora’s grin quickly fell when it became clear Inukashi had business to attend first, and all they could do for now was sit around and wait. Since the baby was asleep and the dogs were protecting it pretty fiercely even against Sora, there wasn’t much to do either.

Riku made himself as comfortable as possible on the couch in what seemed to pass as an office room while Sora was poking around as he always did in new places. He didn’t find much, though, and gave up after checking the cabinets.

“There’s not a lot of food in here,” he said, flopping down on the couch next to Riku. “Life here is pretty tough, huh.”

“So I gathered.”

“You think we can help out?”

“Sora, we’re not supposed to interfere with other worlds.”

“Right, right.” Sora grinned with a very obvious guilty conscience. “Yeah, I guess we haven’t always been very good at that, huh.”

“Speak for yourself.” Riku nudged him with enough force that Sora hit the arm rest on the other side of the couch.

“Hey, it’s not my fault if people get in trouble and need help!”

“Help? Really? Because you very definitely had to take part in a _mermaid musical_ to get people out of trouble?”

“Obviously!” Sora huffed. “And it was fun. Don’t think I’m not dragging you to Atlantica one day once this is all over. I can’t wait to see what you turn into.”

“Something cool, of course. Like a shark.”

Sora stuck out his tongue. “Nah, you’d be like, eh, a puffer fish or something. Yeah!”

“A puffer fish?” Riku raised his eyebrow. “You do know those are poisonous, right?”

“Oh, well. But they try to be so cool with their spikes while they’re actually just silly and…”

“Please stop right there.” Riku’d put his hand on Sora’s mouth already to accomplish just that, though he knew well enough that it wasn’t enough to actually stop his best friend from talking.

Sora’s eyes were sparkling and no doubt he was grinning again under Riku’s hand, but he’d quieted down at least. Maybe he wasn’t confident enough about his knowledge of aquatic life to continue that atrocious comparison. Whatever the case, after a couple of seconds of blissful silence Riku felt confident enough to let go again.

“You’re no fun,” Sora whined, but he didn’t drag the topic any further. Instead, he seemed to be distracted again by something he found in the couch, though Riku didn’t have the time to check what it was as the door was thrown open rather forcibly. He winced in preparation to hear the baby cry.

“Well, that’s that,” Inukashi groaned, flopping down on a lone chair. “Ugh. Oh, great, and you two are still here.”

“Well spotted,” Riku said, not knowing what else Inukashi had been expecting. On the other hand, Inukashi didn’t really know Sora yet.

Speaking of, Sora was uncharacteristically silent all of a sudden. “Hey, Sora?”

Sora didn’t react right away, but instead held out a small trinket he seemed to have found in the creaks of the couch.

Riku squinted and realized it was something he was more than familiar with: a keychain. He didn’t quite understand why Sora seemed to concerned about it, however, considering his own extensive collection and the fact that this bee one seemed more than a little familiar. Sora had probably just lost it here himself bouncing around like that.

“This is mine,” Sora said, voice so serious that Riku was immediately concerned himself. “I mean, it _was_ mine. How did this end up here, Inukashi?”

“What?” Inukashi raised an eyebrow and stared at the keychain for a few seconds before snorting. “Seriously, that thing? Must have fallen out of my goods at some point. No use for keychains here in the West Block, so I wouldn’t even try selling it here. How many keys do you think people have here, anyway? Useless crap.”

Sora shook his head. “No, it’s… I gave this away,” he said, clenching his hands around the keychain so tightly Riku vaguely wondered if his skin might be breaking against the sharp edges. “I gave this one away to _Kairi_.” Riku made a little ‘oh’ in comprehension. “I have another one, but it has another ability, they’re different. This one was for luck.”

Oh, help. “Inukashi, where did your goods come from?” Riku asked in his friend’s place, since Sora seemed caught up in his disbelief to find the keychain here of all places.

Inukashi seemed a little reluctant before finally answering. “Correctional Facility. It’s just stuff from the prisoners that gets dumped, so… what?”

 _Prisoners from the Facility_. Riku connected the dots moments before Sora did, judging by his expression going from disbelief to determination.

“Kairi is in the Facility,” Sora almost whispered. “We have to go save her. Now.”

“Sora, we can’t just…”

“I’m _not_ going to sit by and do nothing, Riku!”

“What do you want, charge in with keyblade in hand?” He should probably regret saying that, as Sora straightened his shoulders and seemed more confident.

“Well, yeah! I was gonna do that anyway, but I’m not going to wait any longer knowing that Kairi is in there!”

“You don’t even know for sure…” But if Sora was right about this being a gift to Kairi and Inukashi was telling the truth about where it came from, then the odds were pretty good, or rather, bad.

“Then we still have at least three friends in there we need to help!”

“You are going to die,” Inukashi deadpanned. “Seriously, you have no sense of self-preservation _at all_ , how did you even live this long?”

“Because of my friends and those connected to me,” Sora proudly proclaimed, “so I’m going to be there for them too.”

Riku smiled despite himself and the situation. This was Sora, after all.

 

*

 

Okay, so maybe they didn’t charge in with keyblades in hand just yet, but Sora was definitely down on his patience now. It was one thing to know Shion and Nezumi had gotten in danger trying to safe Shion’s friend; it was another to add Kairi into the mix.

Unlike Riku, he couldn’t work up the concentration to listen to Inukashi’s plan, and instead went through his inventory and skills to see what he could use to get into the Facility. He had no idea what to expect, but seriously, he’d gotten used to bad situations. He actually kind of doubted this was going to be worse than whatever Xehanort was planning, so they might as well use this opportunity to prepare for that, right?

Sadly Riku wasn’t as convinced as Sora was. He’d had quite enough of being separated from his friends for the next fifty years or so, so Sora didn’t like the thought of going out there alone. Okay, and he kind of felt slightly more secure if he had Riku by his side. Not like he couldn’t manage by himself or that Riku was better than him or something, of course. Two was just always better than one. 

And so Sora waited, though with so much impatience Inukashi just sent him out to go wash the dogs outside and alone just to get Sora up and busy, even though they didn’t really need washing. That didn’t end nearly so well as it did when he’d still helped out Shion. Sora feared one of the dogs might actually dislike him now after he’d accidentally yanked its hair too hard when washing out the shampoo. Oops.

 

Then Inukashi announced preparations were done and it was time to meet Rikiga and go to the Facility, despite sounding rather grumpy about the prospect. Sora hadn’t actually met this Rikiga, though from the little he’d heard he’d quickly learnt he wasn’t exactly Inukashi’s favorite person in the world.

“Damn that old man,” he’d caught Inukashi muttering more than once, usually followed by some more insults that Sora wasn’t even sure were words anymore.

Inukashi had started preparations to leave and left the baby in the dogs’ care, so Sora figured things were finally getting serious.

Except Inukashi only begrudgingly let them tag along and instead seemed more keen on taking guard dogs. Sora and Riku only briefly met Rikiga, an older man with a beard who seemed less than sure about the whole mission. This wasn’t what Sora had been expecting all along, and it was the last drop when it turned out Inukashi and Rikiga’s plan mostly consisted of staying in hiding and pressing a button at the right time.

It didn’t matter, though, because Inukashi did show them the way to the Facility even if it was in a roundabout way. Inukashi and Rikiga had made it to a separate room in the back of the building, so Sora hurried to find the front.

“Sora, wait!”

The last thing he had been expecting was Riku stopping him from charging to the high building directly and grab his arm. “Wait? Why? Kairi’s in there, Riku! So are Shion and Nezumi and Shion’s friend!”

“I know, but you’re not going to barge in there like that! If that was a possibility, don’t you think anyone would have tried already?”

Sora pouted. “We have keyblades and you’re a Master, Riku. They didn’t have _us_!”

“I don’t know, Sora. Somehow I don’t feel like darkness is the worst thing this city has to offer.” Riku sounded very, very serious, which was enough to stop Sora dead in his tracks for at least a moment. “Actually, if it was darkness, I would be less concerned. I know darkness at least.”

He tried for a smile, but it came out grim. Sora didn’t quite know what to tell him for once other than repeat Riku’s own words back to him. “It’s what lurks inside of it, huh,” he thus said.

“Yeah.” Riku’s smile disappeared entirely. “Darkness itself would be – easier, I guess. Not this. This city isn’t what we’ve encountered before. I don’t know what Shion told you, but from the picture Nezumi painted…” He left the rest of the sentence to linger in the air, either unsure how to finish it or assuming Sora got the picture.

He didn’t. “Then it’s just more important that we go and save them, right? If it’s so dangerous? Really, Riku, we can handle this, we’ve been to so many worlds before where these kind of things…”

“I’m not going to lose you again!” Riku’s shouted words seemed to startle himself too,  as he quickly covered his mouth with his hand after that, averting his gaze as if he was embarrassed.

Sora just blinked in surprise. “You never lost me, did you?” _Almost_ , his brain helpfully supplied, _almost, and you know it. It could happen again._ He quickly shook his head to expel those thoughts. It didn’t matter, because _that_ wasn’t going to happen again ever. And okay, maybe Riku and he had lost sight of each other before, but they’d reunited in the end even if it had taken a while. And now they were an unbreakable team, so really, what was Riku’s problem exactly? “I wasn’t planning on storming in there alone, unless you really chicken out on me at the last minute there.” It sounded ridiculous as he said it. Riku, afraid? But then again, enough had happened in the last couple of years that had changed his best friend in many ways. If he still was overly confident at times, he didn’t bother showing Sora anymore, that was for sure.

“I wouldn’t. But this is dangerous,” Riku said, “the Heartless aren’t the problem anymore. I haven’t seen them during our way here, and no-one we’ve met has mentioned them. They’re here, but they’re attracted to what is the bigger problem. And frankly, I think we’re going to get in way over our heads if we charge into the Facility.”

“One way to find out.” Sora summoned his keyblade and continued his way, Riku following this time.

 

Sora was being stubborn, but sadly, so was the entrance to the Correctional Facility. There was a door on this side, sure, but it wouldn’t budge no matter how much he tried to use the keyblade on it. Which was pretty crappy, because Sora had kind of counted on it being able to open every door. Apparently the blade came with fine print saying ‘does not open Facility doors’ that no-one had bothered to read him.

Even after convincing Riku to try together, the door wouldn’t budge. Riku kept his distance after that, seeming ill at ease and constantly checking their surroundings.

“For such a highly protected building, you’d think someone would have come in by now to stop us,” he eventually said, which, okay, was a valid point. “I wonder what’s going on inside. Hang on.”

Just as Riku sniffed, Sora smelled it too: the scent of something burning. His face lit up. “Fire! Oh hey, that sounds like an idea. You think magic could work on that door?”

“If it’s closed with an electric circuit, lightning magic could help,” Riku said, “but I don’t think this is magic. Stay back.”

“But…”

The sound of explosions interrupted Sora’s sentence and he abruptly forgot what he was about to say.

It had come from inside the Correctional Facility.

Sora backed off instinctively, staring up at the building looming in front of them. It didn’t quite look like something was wrong yet, but that had very definitely sounded like something exploding _inside_. Where Kairi and his new friends were.

Riku had tensed in front of him, staring at the building as if that would give them some answers.

It did – if you counted another giant explosion as an answer.

After that, the top of the building caught on fire.

It was burning. The Correctional Facility was burning, and Sora’s friends were still inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry again


	6. Correctional Facility: Prison Cells

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things take a turn for the worse inside the Correctional Facility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -silently points at the archive warning-  
> I'm sorry. I'm so so so so so so sorry I really am. If it helps I hate me too.
> 
> BUT MOSTLY THE NO. 6 CANON BECAUSE HOW DARE YOU.

It was the first clear thought in her mind, the first real concept she could get a grip on. Her head felt fuzzy, and she was positive she had forgotten more than one important event, but she clung to the name that rang so clearly to her.

_Shion, I want to see you._

She knew that for sure, even if nothing else. She had gone to see Shion at least once more, and that longing was still firmly in place.

It was very frustrating not to remember, however. Safu depended on thinking and knowledge, and now she couldn’t access the latter. She felt barely conscious, thoughts fluttering and hard to grasp, and had no idea where she actually was. All she could see was white. Something had happened, she could conclude as much, but…

  _Safu!_

The sudden jerk of a memory shocked her – it felt like it was very recent. The voice was unfamiliar, new, female and higher than Shion’s voice she had been longing for, but not unpleasant at all. Who was this?

Her tired mind supplied the name just as suddenly as the voice, and with effort, Safu could summon vague contours to go with them. Red hair, blue eyes. Someone out of place in No. 6, but someone kind and – light. Safu couldn’t say she was very poetically inclined, but it didn’t feel like a metaphor to compare this person to a ray of light.

She tried to piece the fragments together that were slowly starting to come back to her, and finally started to succeed.

She had met Kairi while trying to get to Shion – Shion had escaped from the city. Safu was going to see him, but, but…

And then the memories started to return in full, realization making her want to scream.

The scent of blood was close, and in the white fog, a shadow moved.

“Ah, good morning, Safu. Are you awake?”

_No. No._

_Shion, where are you?_

_Turn me back._

_Shion!_

*

 

Kairi sank back against the bare wall, taking a deep breath after another failed attempt. She hated being taken captive. She hated not being able to do something, anything. She hated failing her friends, losing sight of them. This had happened before, more than she’d like to remember, and she was _not_ going to just sit around and accept it. However, she was running out of alternatives.

They hadn’t been able to take her keyblade away, though not by lack of trying. She had stopped summoning it after it had been taken from her by brutal force about a dozen times, only for it to disappear and return to her own hands. That had gotten her into even more trouble. Not that she was entirely helpless without the keyblade or even without the use of magic, of course. One of the guards still cowered ever so slightly when passing her cell, rubbing his hand that still had Kairi’s teeth marks in them. A small victory.

What confused her most was the fact that she had her own cell to begin with, and moreover, that they seemed intent on keeping her alive. Even in her own semi-private space, Kairi saw. She saw the people around her, in various stages of distress and desperation. Beaten up, starving, aggressive, hopeless, so desperate to get out that they didn’t seem to care if they hurt others. No-one ever got out, not by their own choice. Kairi had seen many people being dragged out, violently protesting or too weak to make their voices heard. They never returned.

It wasn’t a rare occasion that someone left the cell block completely still, pale and frozen. The guards disposing of them never seemed to care to carry them off properly, dragged them along as if they were… less than dirt.

 

Kairi still hadn’t decided if her other life, all those other worlds had been a dream and this was the cruel reality, or if this was a horrible nightmare she had yet to wake up from. She still wanted to believe the latter.

It was starting to get hard to tell how much time had passed, though she knew it must have been a while. Days, at least. Weeks, perhaps. She had stopped trying to actively get out of her cell after finding out the hard way that her keyblade was useless against the electric doors, and that her lightning magic was not enough to disturb whatever circuit was keeping those doors shut. She had to be careful using magic, anyway. It still took a lot of her energy to restore her powers, more and more the longer she was here, and she no longer had elixirs to count on.  All her possessions save for the keyblade had been taken. She had vaguely wondered what they’d done with her potions and elixirs – if they’d realized what they were for, or if they were researching them. Because it had become obvious that research was conducted in this building, though she had yet to find out what kind, exactly.

And then there were the Heartless. There were swarms of them, the pureblood kind. The Shadows often managed to squeeze their ways into the cells, helped by the darkness this place was soaked in. Kairi easily kept them off by herself, but she was the only one lucky enough with a way to defend herself. Many a spell had been cast to chase away the Heartless from other cells, often successfully, but not always.

She tried not to blame herself too much, but it was hard.

 

Despite the lack of real company, she found herself wishing Sora and Riku weren’t here, after all. This wasn’t the kind of adventure she’d had in mind, not something she’d wish for them to go through. Though honestly, she was really getting tired of this kidnapping crap, pardon her language.

And then, of course, there was Safu. Kairi could still hope Sora and Riku had gotten lost somewhere, never made it to No. 6 at all, least of all this Facility. But Safu was very definitely here, if she was even still… Kairi didn’t even dare to think of it, despite knowing how real the possibility was. She’d promised Safu to help her! They were going to get out of here, get out of the city and find Shion. It should just have been another mission, nothing too difficult, nothing she hadn’t done before.

 

She wondered if she’d be able to get out of here soon, defy all the odds. Would someone step out of a dark corridor and double-kidnap her again? Would the walls finally give in to her keyblade fury and magic assault?

She hadn’t tried in a while. There was a little girl in the cell across from her, terrified and wounded and hurt in more ways than Kairi dared to imagine. She’d tried to heal her, cast a cure spell from a distance, but it had scared the child more than done her any good. And that was before she’d pulled out her keyblade.

Something was different today. People were restless in the cells surrounding Kairi. Granted, they always were; as horrifying as it was to admit, Kairi knew that she’d quickly gotten very good at ignoring the grunts of pain and suffering, if only because she had no choice. Today however – today there were murmurs, talking, and a total lack of guards trying to shut people up or worse. Kairi had seen a grand total of two Shadows that day, and they’d both scurried away as fast as they could

Something was about to happen. Maybe something had already happened.

Kairi took a deep breath and braced herself.

The sense of darkness was still there, that much hadn’t changed. It came with the presence of the Heartless, of whatever was going on here that she had meant to figure out before… well. But she felt something else too. It wasn’t a light illuminating the darkness per say, but a presence was arising somewhere inside the Facility that was neither human nor Heartless. It would be nice if Kairi’s senses were so kind as to tell here where and what exactly it was, but hey, she couldn’t have it all, could she.

Distracted as she’d been by this other sense, she now noticed something else: a scent, a real scent that the others were smelling too. More like a smell, really, one that she knew well after some experiments with her newly learnt magic gone awry. The smell of fire, of something burning.   

Her other senses got overwhelmed in quick succession after that.

Alarms started blaring, sprinklers were turned on in an instant, people started screaming and smoke started to trail through the corridors.

Kairi summoned her keyblade by instinct and gave the unyielding bars in front of her a good thwacking, if only to show her absolute refusal to go down here, of all places. Not here, not in a prison in a world that wasn’t hers, not without seeing her loved ones once more.

And to her absolute surprise, the bars gave way.

It wasn’t just Kairi’s cell, either. Around her, people were hurrying to get up and rush out of their cells as the bars were raised in what must be emergency protocol, but felt more like a helping hand.

They were free. They were actually _free_.

It was utter chaos. Prisoners scrambled to their feet, not all of them able to stand properly; others knocked each other over, and Kairi winced as she saw at least three people getting trampled by others on their way out.

And then there were the Heartless. Shadows were rushing in left and right, sometimes accompanied by their bigger cousins, and tried to take the hearts they couldn’t reach before. The other prisoners had no real way to defend themselves, if only because of the elation of being free. And in all truth, some of these people did actually behave like criminals. Not all of them; Kairi had counted too many innocent children and broken adults to believe this was a facility only meant to protect the outside world from true criminals. Still, no-one here had anything to lose but their lives, and some fought for it so hard that it would cost others.

Kairi raised her keyblade and gathered all her focus. She had to aim right, or she’d hurt people instead of Heartless. “Thunder!”

It worked –at least momentarily, which was good enough. Her magic took out a few dozen of Shadows and some bigger Heartless, freeing the path for the former prisoners to make their way out.

Someone was missing, however. Someone Kairi had tried to look for all along, even though she had to try not to get her hopes up too much. She knew odds were she’d been placed elsewhere, but still… She could hope. “Safu! Safu, are you here?”

There was no response, and she hadn’t expected any. That man had sounded like he’d had – _plans_ for Safu, and Kairi shuddered to think what they were. Of course she wouldn’t be put in jail with the other prisoners, they’d take her somewhere else.

 _Upstairs_.

 The top floor. Of course. He’d said so, hadn’t he? The only problem was getting there in this chaos. Naturally, everyone was trying to get away from the fire and the Heartless, which meant downstairs.

“Safu! _Safu_!”

Kairi wondered if Safu was after her friend now, if she’d gotten out of whatever place she’d been taken to in the first place. She should. She was smart and kind, and she could save herself and others, Kairi was sure of it.

She got pushed aside a dozen times before she even passed ten cells in the opposite direction that everyone else was taking.

Suddenly, a gun shot rang through the hallway.

Guards, of the human kind. Kairi was facing a handful of them, but they were more interested in keeping the rest of the prisoners where they were – alive or otherwise.

 The realization hit her almost as hard as if she’d been shot herself. People were being _killed_ here, not by fire or manifestations of darkness but by actual other people. The only reason she was still alive at this point was because of her keyblade and the fact that she was running in the right (or very wrong) direction. Even if they’d been interested in her abilities, they were right now more interested in keeping people from getting out of here alive.

She had to get out of here. She had to get as many other people out of here with her. “ _SAFU!_ ”

Kairi hadn’t expected any response, really. Though she didn’t like to accept it, she knew that Safu was someplace where she couldn’t hear Kairi – she knew, otherwise she would have found her by now.

But sure enough, there was a chuckling sound in her ears. It didn’t sound like Safu at all, but there was something about it…

The presence she had felt earlier was getting stronger. She was definitely sure now that it wasn’t tied to the darkness or the violence that was taking place here right now, but it wasn’t necessarily benign by any means. It felt oddly familiar, a sense she’d gotten long ago in a time she’d rather forget. Like a heart, a bigger heart than that of humans or animals. 

It was on the tip of her tongue when sudden words sped through her mind, a soundless, unfamiliar voice that rang crystal clear.

_What an interesting child, that Safu._

A rush of images flashed through her mind then, as if they’d been planted by whatever presence was passing.

Kairi felt like throwing up as her vision went dark for a second.

 

She only caught herself a full twenty seconds later, heaving and leaning against the wall with one hand, trembling on her legs. She was good at sensing things, sensing light and darkness and whatever else came with being a Princess of Light, but _this…_

_I have to get out of here. Right now._

It hurt, it hurt unthinkably much, but she couldn’t go back inside to save Safu, she knew that. If she wanted any chance of making it out of here in one piece, she had better rush.

So that’s what Kairi did.

As fast as her still wobbly feet could carry her, she rushed back through the hallway that ran through the cell block, keyblade drawn and ready to fire at any opportunity, and she got many of those.

She smacked at least two guards down as they were trying to fire at the mass of escaping prisoners, having the element of surprise and her weapon on her side. She wasn’t quite as lucky the second time, but a good Firaga spell helped her out there. Fire for fire.

Kairi almost tripped over a child next, only then noticing it was the little girl that had been terrified of her before. She was crying, stretching her hand out to Kairi.

“Mama’s… my mama is…”

Kairi bit her lip for a moment’s hesitation and took the girl’s hand. “Come with me.”

The girl didn’t protest, maybe having figured out that Kairi was less of a danger to her than the prisoners around her trampling over each other, or the guards that were still firing at them, or even the Shadows still clawing at anyone who came too close. 

Having a little girl in tow did slow her down, but Kairi refused to leave her behind, or to see more people getting hurt in the first place. She couldn’t avoid the latter, but she surely could try to prevent it.

Three summons of Aeroga and Reflega later, Kairi felt her magic drawing out and she gritted her teeth in frustration. She had to be more careful. No party members to back her up this time, no friends to toss her potions or elixirs in time of need. She made her best effort not to think of specific people.

_Come on, Kairi. Get these people out alive, it’s the least you can do._

She remembered words from earlier: how it shouldn’t be so easy to wander around freely in the Correctional Facility, how it was supposed to be so heavily guarded no-one had ever broken out. She found it hard to believe no-one had ever tried to start a fire to trigger the emergency protocols and get out of prison. Those bars had been raised on purpose.

_Someone’s helping us. I can’t let them down._

Someone was out there for her, _someone_. Kairi had her hopes, and she was clinging to them now.

 She had to get downstairs, she knew that, away from the fire and fast. After what felt like ages, she finally broke through the mass of people and almost tripped over the first stairs, the little girl still clinging to her arm.

With the last of her magic, Kairi summoned yet another Aero spell to get them down the stairs safely and quickly.

“Hurry now!”

The little girl scrambled to her feet and rushed off, Kairi following as fast as she could while casting glances over her shoulder back at the stairs. Prisoners were still making their way downstairs, but so were the Heartless and she could still smell the smoke and hear the gun shots.

Just… oh, _shit_.

“Follow me!” Kairi shouted up the stairs, hoping her voice reached those in need rather than the guards on their trail.

And of course, it couldn’t be as easy as ‘rushing down the stairs and storming out of the front door’. Whether or not someone was helping them, helping _her_ , they certainly had no influence over the guards. Unluckily for them, Kairi had run out of both patience and magic.

“Out of the way!” She shoved aside one of the guards with a firm swing of her keyblade, smashing him into one of his colleagues, and elbowed another stunned one aside. “Move! We’re getting out!”

There was yelling behind her, some prisoners agreeing with her shouts and others… she tried not to think about that too hard as she pressed onwards, towards the next staircase, fiercely hoping it would be the last of them. She passed two boys who looked like they didn’t belong, one dark and one white haired, but Kairi had no time to worry about them as more shots were being fired behind her at the group of prisoners. She screwed her eyes shut as one of them fell,  another one, the green of their prison shirts stained in dark red.

_Out, we need to get out. Sora, Riku, you better be there waiting for me._

Kairi coughed as the smoke started to spread around her, knowing time was running out. Keyblade wielder and Princess of Heart or not, she still had her limits and potions and magic could only do so much.

It was starting to get warmer and warmer as the fire must be spreading – or maybe there were multiple. Everyone was in disarray, from the prisoners to the guards that were still desperately shooting and occasionally succeeding.

_This… this is hell._

Kairi shut her eyes again against the smoke and started running purely on instinct, shouting three names in her head over and over as a sort of protective chant. She had no charm this time to go on.

_Sora. Riku. Safu…_

She had to get out. She had to… to make up for what had happened to her new friend. The visions were still burnt in her eyes, despite her best efforts to forget. She shook her head and tried to focus on the last of the images.

_A building. Tall, taller than any of the others. That’s where it’s going, whatever it is._

And it was where the Heartless were going, she knew it. She could feel the pull. There was something dark in that very building that was reaching out to them.

_Out… out!_

 

Fire, there was fire everywhere. The shots were starting to die out, but in their place, a more violent explosion rang – and another, and another.

Kairi was still pushing forward, meeting no resistance as she swung her keyblade in front of her, vision blurred and hazy because of the smoke. Whatever was happening inside the Facility, it was causing the building to come apart. She didn’t even dare to think about how many people might still be inside, unable to get out at this point. She didn’t even know what had become of the little girl.

She closed her eyes and whispered the names once more, clinging to those strands of intense hope.

 _Whoosh_.

A warm wind swept through her hair – warm because of the fires, but definitely from outdoors.

As she opened her eyes, Kairi saw the open door.

 

She couldn’t remember how she managed that last sprint towards the door. All she was aware of was the sound of explosions, the heat of the fire rapidly catching up with her, the smoke getting caught in her lungs and blurring her vision even further. She vaguely recalled trying to cast Curaga, but her magic was so low that any effects were lost on her.

But then her feet hit the grounds outside, and as if by miracle, two pairs of strong arms caught her as she stumbled by the change of surface and tripped over herself.

“ _Kairi_!” Two voices were shouting her name in unison, sounding terrified and worried and painful all at once.

Her breath caught on the sigh of relief, and she started coughing violently instead. “Sora… Riku…” She could hear how broken her voice sounded, knew that it wouldn’t cause her friends to worry less about her, but she couldn’t care for the moment.

_I’m out. I’m out of there. I made it._

“We have to run, the building’s about to explode,” came Riku’s voice, any attempts to sound calm completely overridden by the tremble of worry in his voice. In any other situation, it would have made Kairi smile in endearment.

“Right.”

And with that, Kairi felt how each boy heaved one of her arms on their shoulders, firmly placing her in between them. It was a little awkward, her left arm slumping lower to lean on Sora as she was being pulled up by Riku on her right, but she felt safer than she had in weeks.

“Can you still walk?” Sora’s voice asked near her ear. He sounded even more worried than Riku, if that were even possible. “We can drag you along.”

She nodded mutely, not trusting her voice anymore. For one moment, she was perfectly content to just make it off this world with her two best friends, leaving all of this behind like a horrible, terrible nightmare, but…

_No, wait. The building. We have to get there._

“City,” she brought out, hoping her voice didn’t get entirely lost in the running, the dragging and the smoke in her lungs. “Have to… Tall buil… building, go…”

Two pairs of arms were around her then, hugging her tight and shielding her completely. She was vaguely aware of Sora shouting something – a spell, maybe – and Riku raising his keyblade as well.

After that, a huge explosion left a ring in her ears. There was a rush of hot wind, a small flash followed by a blinding one.

The world turned dark the next moment, and Kairi felt herself slip out of consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SORRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
> 
> AU IN WHICH SAFU AND KAIRI RUSH OUT OF THE FACILITY WAY BEFORE SHIT GOES DOWN AND FIND INUKASHI AND TEAM UP AND BE AWESOME TOGETHER AND SAVE THEIR BOYS' ASSES AND NO-ONE GETS KIDNAPPED OR DIES AND THEY ALL LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER OKAY.  
> ... I'm not kidding I'm actually considering that AU. But first let me finish this one.


	7. The Moondrop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Sora, Riku and Kairi are together again, it is time to complete their mission. For better or for worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey look the Destiny Islands trio is back together! About time, too, since this is the last chapter before the epilogue. Ssssh.
> 
> Quite some scenes are taken almost directly from the last No. 6 novel at this point, though of course with minor changes to accommodate for the KH crew. I kinda mixed the novels and the manga together for this since they're subtly different. If you only watched the No. 6 anime, then this part probably feels rather unfamiliar due to the changes the anime made. I hope it's still clear enough to piece things together at least partially!

By the time Sora could open his eyes again, his Reflega spell had worn off. Riku was holding out his keyblade, his shield still up, but it was a matter of time before he had to draw back. 

“We have to hurry,” Riku said, “that can’t have been the last of it.”

“Yeah. Kairi?”

She didn’t respond. Sora was still holding onto her, but her body had gone limb in his arms and he really, really hoped she’d just fainted. He didn’t like seeing Kairi like this. It brought back bad memories.

“Riku.” Sora gritted his teeth in preparation. “Did you see someone else come out of the building?”

There was no reply to that question. “We should get going,” Riku just said, lowering his keyblade at last and looking back at Sora and Kairi. “I’ll carry her, let’s go.”

Sora balked a little at that, but figured now really wasn’t the time to get petty over who got to carry whom. He helped Riku heaving Kairi into his arms and started looking around, finding a good route to flee along.

 

As they ran, there was another explosion, maybe even bigger than the earlier ones. Sora didn’t want to look back over his shoulder anymore as they ran into the woods.

_They got out, I’m sure. They didn’t get in through the front door, so obviously they didn’t get out through it either._

He refused to think any further. _Obviously_ Shion and Nezumi had made it out, they had had a plan and everything. They went to save Shion’s friend and made it out, and Kairi made it out too. If no-one else had come out, clearly they’d already left the building.

Sora took a deep breath and focused on the friends that were actually around now. “How’s she?”

“Still unconscious.” Riku had slowed down his pace once they’d made it into the forest. “We should sit down somewhere. You still have elixirs, right?”

“Yep. Found two in some chests a while ago, got lucky.”

“Of course you did.”

Sora grinned in reply and looked around. There was a small open spot nearby, still mostly under the trees and they were far enough away from the burning building not to feel its heat. “How about here?”

“Great.”

As Riku was visibly stumbling now, Sora hurried to his side to help him lower Kairi on the ground, hoping the grass was okay for her to lie on.

Kairi didn’t move at all, and Sora had to hold himself back from checking for her breath.

“She’s fine,” Riku told him, though he looked about as worried as Sora felt. “She just fainted, I think. Get your elixirs and magic ready.”

“Roger that.”

Trying his best to ban any memories of Kairi lifeless like this from his mind, Sora scrambled to get his supplies, tossing aside some potions for now as he made his way to his Elixirs.  

Riku carefully held back her head so Sora could feed her the medicine, stroking her hair aside and finding ash marks on her cheeks. It hurt to see her like this. “Please wake up,” he softly told her.

Kairi didn’t immediately comply, and so Sora sat back and just… hoped.

He had cast at least three Cure spells by the time Riku seized his hand and wordlessly told him to stop.

The next moments passed in utter silence before finally, _finally_ , Kairi’s eyes blinked open just a little, enough for Sora to see the blue of her eyes again at least.

“Hey,” he said, working up his best smile.

Kairi coughed a little in response, but she eventually managed a small smile. “Sora,” she said, voice still raspy. “Riku.”

“Yeah. We’re here.” They’d both knelt down next to her, Riku still looking rather tense but Sora feeling his own smile spreading now that Kairi seemed okay, or at least okay enough to recognize them. Riku didn’t seem at ease enough, however. “How do you feel?”

“Just a sec.” Kairi winced a little as she struggled to get up, eventually settling for leaning against the tree. “Well. I can move. I think my magic is returning, too.” She took a deep breath. “We need to go.”

“You need to heal first,” Riku sternly said, seizing her shoulders for emphasis. “Kairi, you just came out of an _exploding building_. How long have you even been in there?”

“Until before it exploded?” Kairi actually managed a grin before her expression turned serious again. “A long time. I was locked up in there.”

Sora felt his heart drop. “Kairi, we’re sorry…”

“No, it’s… Look, we need to go.” She was staring very intensely at Sora now, and if she’d asked a question already he’d have been sure this was her begging to agree with her. “To the city. The tallest building, there’s… Something is going to happen. Safu is…”

Sora didn’t miss how her entire body slumped at the name. _Safu – that was the name of Shion’s friend, wasn’t it._ “Kairi, what happened to you in there? You met someone?”

Kairi nodded and swallowed. “I did. But we need to go to the city, it’s really important. It has to do with the Heartless.” And with that, she was staring at Riku. “I am fine, really. We have to go.”

“Your health is more important than any mission.”

Kairi grimaced at that. “Don’t go all Wise Keyblade Master on me, Riku.”

“Kairi, you were out of it until just now.” Sora was still kneeling next to her, having grabbed her hand in some attempt to reassure himself she was indeed awake and alright. “We were really worried.”

“Well, don’t be.” Her voice came out harsh. “I’m not the one you should worry about, I can handle this. I managed to get out, didn’t I? Now help me get up.”

Sora complied even if Riku seemed hesitant. He wasn’t sure if he could guess what Kairi had been through inside the building, but it had made her more determined than ever.

She was still wobbly on her legs, and she seized Sora’s arm immediately once he offered. “Did anyone else come out of the building?” Kairi now asked, more to the ground than to either of her friends.

“Ehm.” Even if they had, Sora wouldn’t know. “I was kinda busy making sure you were okay. But there are other exits, I’m sure! Shion and Nezumi took another way in too, right Riku?”

Riku didn’t chime in as he’d hoped, even though this was something they both knew for sure. Kairi didn’t seem that cheered up with the answer either, still facing the ground.

“So then they didn’t… _Ugh._ ” To Sora’s surprise, she was able to stomp her foot pretty violently despite her current state. “I hate this. We were just supposed to take care of some Heartless, why did it turn out like this?”

Riku had been pretty silent so far, but he was now offering Kairi his arm as well and returned her gaze. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, my magic is back now so I can heal myself if needed. Ehm. Do you still have some spare potions?”

“I do!” Sora happily offered her as many as he could hold in his free hand, glad that he could give Kairi something tangible and useful. At least it made her smile for a bit.

“Thanks. You’re going to have to fill me in on what you guys found out and did while I was in there on our way to the city.”

“You’re really not taking no for an answer, are you?” Riku sounded vaguely amused, though he was still looking concerned.

“Of course not.” Kairi broke free of their grips and balanced back to her own feet, a quick, cheeky grin flashing on her face. “Now let’s get going before I leave _you_ behind for a change.”

 

The trip to the city center didn’t go quite as smoothly as they could have wanted. First, more than just the Facility was burning: it seemed as if most other buildings nearby had caught on fire as well. Secondly, they had to find a way inside the city, which wasn’t as easy as Sora had been expecting.

“Would be nice if we had your Spirit with us now to carry us over, huh,” Sora said to Riku, trying to make a joke out of it despite the fact he couldn’t really think of a way to get over the wall. Not without fairy dust or other help, anyway.

“Keyblade armor?” Kairi suggested.

Riku scoffed. “For such a short distance? Do you remember the last time Sora tried to race you around the island with it?”

 “Hey!”

But Kairi laughed too. “Good point.”

Sora couldn’t even deny it, because yeah, that _hadn’t_ gone over too well. He still pouted just to make his point. “Then what else?”

“We could…” Riku gave Kairi a pondering look for some reason. “We could go back into the direction of the Facility. I think I saw a gate there to the city, though I don’t doubt it’s heavily protected.”

“Not anymore.” Kairi shook her head. “I don’t know what happened in there, but the prison cells were opened. I think the security of the entire building went down. All they could do to stop the prisoners was use the human guards and the Heartless.”

“We can take those,” Sora agreed.

 

*

 

Human and Heartless guards were the least of their worries as the gate turned out to be on fire on their approach. Riku supposed they could have seen that one coming at least, considering the explosions.

“This is getting dangerous.”

“I can equip Diamond Dust,” Sora offered, holding out the keychain. “Blizzard trails should help us stay cool, right?”

 Sora had by far the most extensive keychain collection out of the three of them, so Riku stuck to his Way to the Dawn as he was most used to wielding it. This didn’t seem like the best opportunity to try out new techniques.

He stole a glance at Kairi next to them, but she didn’t show anything but determination in the way she’d clenched her teeth, held a tight grip on her keyblade. She looked like she was ready to fight the fire with her bare hands if she had to. “Let’s just go. The longer we wait, the more the fire will spread.”

Her hands were scratched; she still had trails of ash on her face; some strands of her hair were black and overall a tangled mess; the green shirt she must have gotten inside the Facility was torn up and burnt around the edges; black circles around her eyes made her seem tired beyond reason, and yet Kairi still looked ready to go to war and wreak havoc.

Riku wasn’t sure if he should feel proud of her training or just very, very afraid.

Next to him, Sora had already equipped his keychain and was giving Diamond Dust a good swishing. It was not the most powerful keyblade he had, Riku knew as much, but with the heat of the fire the trails of blizzard magic melted quickly and rained down on them.

Riku raised his keyblade too, ready to cast a shield. He wasn’t sure how well it would protect them against non-magical fire, but it was probably still preferable over going through the gate unarmed.

No-one bothered to count to three. Kairi leapt forward a good half second later, and the boys simply followed her charge.

 

It turned out magic shields didn’t do very much against non-magical fire indeed, and Riku found himself cursing silently as they ran, wondering if they couldn’t have thought of anything else to make it into the city fast. Didn’t Sora mention he’d managed to fly, once? Or twice, or many more times when Riku refused to believe it. Kairi had bought it immediately and enthusiastically when Sora had recounted his adventures, so he was surprised she hadn’t mentioned it. Then again, Kairi seemed to have other things on her mind than ‘pixie dust’ or whatever it had been.

Plus, it had been in Neverland. Riku would rather forget most things associated with that place.

Kairi was still ahead of them when they made it through the gate, her hair almost becoming one with the flames in its color. There was no time to stop and think ahead as the building behind them was starting to fall apart more and more, and they heard several more small explosions.

For the first time in a long while, there was a road to follow straight ahead of them. It was the only way to go, the only way that wasn’t dyed in scarlet tones.

The sky was on fire. Riku’d seen many skies: dark, hues of blue and red, the sunsets back at the islands, but none of those skies had been as close to real flames as this. Many, many more buildings must have caught fire to cause this. There was a forest looming in front of them, a huge one by the looks of it, and still the smoke and flames were visible over the tree tops. The city itself had to be on fire.

  _We’re in way deeper than just Heartless._

Riku didn’t even wonder where the Heartless would be. If one good spell could take them out, then surely this inferno would do the job just as well. At least that was one less problem to deal with, although he didn’t doubt they had much worse yet to come.

At that moment, the Correctional Facility gave in and blew up entirely.

 

He’d seen darkness for longer than he cared to remember in his life already, though ‘knocked out by the force of an explosion’ wasn’t on the list of causes for it just yet.

When Riku opened his eyes again, it was to see Sora and Kairi knelt in front of him. Sora was holding out his keyblade, ice crystals spraying out while he tried his hardest keeping up a Reflect spell. Next to him, Kairi had dropped her keyblade and pressed her hands against her ears. Had the explosion been that loud?

“Riku!” Sora now called. “You okay?”

“Of course.” He scrambled back to his feet, feeling oddly embarrassed over being apparently the only one to be knocked out in the first place. That wasn’t the first worry on his mind however, as Kairi was now softly whimpering.

“Not again, not again…”

“Kairi? What’s going on?”

She shook her head, pressing her hands against her ears even tighter. “I don’t want to see this, I don’t… Safu is… _Argh_!”

Her frustrated scream rose to the skies, and for one second, Riku would swear he heard something as well. Chuckling. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think something had emerged from the collapsed and burning ruins behind them, and was _chuckling_.

By the time he’d processed this, Sora was already in front of Kairi, seizing her arms and trying desperately to get her to look at him. “Kairi, _Kairi_! What’s going on, are you alright?!”

Riku forgot all about his short black-out once he spotted the tears welling up in Kairi’s eyes, and he rushed to her side as well.

Wordlessly, Kairi wrapped her arms around the both of them and held them tight, pushing all three of them into a crushing hug.

 

Minutes passed in which none of them dared to speak. The fires were still roaring behind them, the sky was still ablaze and there was still a giant forest looming in front of them that they had to cross if they wanted to make it into the city. They didn’t even know what had become of their friends in this place, but for this moment, it was just the three of them holding on, making sure they were all here and in one piece.

Kairi took a deep breath and was the first to release her hold on them.

“I met Safu in the Facility,” she then said, voice still slightly uneven. “We were both arrested. We tried to get out, we made good progress, but… it was a trick. She was captured and I was put into prison. I don’t know what happened to Safu. I didn’t, but… I saw something. Like a vision someone put into my head. I don’t think it was a being of light or darkness, but it felt familiar. It’s heading out. Whatever it was, it was inside the Facility and it’s going to the city. I don’t think that’s a good thing.”

“And the highest place…”

“I think that’s where it’s going. Or where it’s going to be easiest to reach.”

Riku nodded. “Right. So that’s where we’re going, too. ” He went over the conversations he’d had back at the hotel, what seemed a lifetime ago. “I think it could be the Moondrop, the city hall. Nezumi mentioned it at some point.”

At the name, Sora stirred. “Ah, ehm.” He almost looked embarrassed. “Kairi, you didn’t… meet anyone named Shion or Nezumi inside the Facility, did you?”

“I met a lot of people in there, Sora.” Kairi gave him a watered down version of her usual smile. “Not many stopped to give me their names.”

“I’m sorry, I…”

“It’s okay. Really.” She sighed. “I’d be worried too.”

“I’m sure they made it out,” Sora said, still sounding fairly convinced. “They had a plan. I mean, Riku and I made it out and we didn’t even have a plan!”

“Because you… oh, forget it.” Riku shook his head. “It doesn’t matter for now. Let’s just get to the Moondrop.”

 

When they finally made it out of the woods, it was to find the city in utter chaos. Buildings were indeed on fire; people were running in panic, screaming about bees and vaccines, fire and death. Shots rang through the streets that sounded like they could originate from guns. And there were bodies in the streets, mangled bodies that Riku tried his best not to look at. The smell in the air was horrible, even for his nose which had gotten used to the scent of darkness after a while. 

_Give me the smell of wet dogs any time over this._

The Moondrop was easy enough to find, the only building towering over the rest. They weren’t the only ones: a huge crowd had gathered, shouting for people in power to appear. Whatever was going on here, it was most certainly not limited to the Correctional Facility.

_It’s like the entire city has fallen. And not to darkness this time, either._

“Riku.” The tone of Kairi’s voice said enough. She had stopped to stare at the crowd, and more importantly, what was behind it.

Weapons. Warfare. The Moondrop, the center of a supposedly utopian city, was being defended with weapons of war.

_So that’s what was beneath the surface. Nezumi was right on the money._

This was more than a little hitch in their plan, though. Heartless they could handle, but this…

Hang on. Maybe they didn’t have to.

“Sora, how’s your magic?”

Sora tapped his keyblade, back to the Kingdom Key again, and quickly raised a thumb. “All good!”

“Kairi?”

She tapped her keyblade in response. “Mostly back. What’s the plan?”

“Cast Stop magic on the crowds. All of us together. It might buy us enough time to make it inside and to the top.”

It was a shot in the dark, but he much preferred it over having to fight any mobs. Sora for one had used the trick against annoying flocks of Heartless and it had worked – it was worth a try, at least.

The three of them spread in a half-circle to cover as much ground as possible and raised their keyblades simultaneously.

“STOP!”

If anyone looked up at the three-voiced command, they were too late: for a brief moment, all movement of the people around the keyblade trio was halted.

“Run!”

Riku made his way through the mass as fast as he could, trying to keep an eye on his friends as he did. He had no idea how long the spell would last, especially on a crowd this big. Kairi had proven to be quite skilled at magic, Sora and he had had practice, but this many people…

He’d half-expected they had to waste time figuring out a way to open the door at the top of the stairs, but they didn’t have to. Sora bashed into it first without even considering to use the keyblade, and he rushed inside the building without as much as an alarm going off.

Riku and Kairi followed after him just in time as the roars of the crowd started to flare up again behind them.

That’s also when he smelt a familiar scent again. Darkness, much more intense than before.

_What is going on in there?_

*

 

He had no idea what they were looking for, but Kairi had given them a mission: get to the highest point of the building. Sora could follow missions.

A quick glance over his shoulder as he rushed up the first set of stairs told him his teammates were close behind him, and Sora felt a nice rush coming over him. They could do this. They were together again, they’d overcome the obstacles on their way, all they had to do now was making it to the top and then…

His train of thoughts stopped when he hit the final staircase, finding himself in front of huge doors that he was usually very careful about as there were always guards of some sort. Well, except in Disney Castle, but that might have been because the guard had already been on his team.

Sora took a step forward, but nothing came to jump him. He took his chances.

The doors unceremoniously slid open at his push to reveal two men standing. One of them was in a lab coat and was in the middle of some kind of panicked story to the other man, but both had looked up at their entrance.

“Did you expect visitors?” The man in the lab coat grinned at them, and Sora immediately grasped his keyblade in reflex. That tone of voice and grin sent a chill through him and he didn’t like this guy _at all_. Reminded him of someone, somehow.

It was nothing compared to Kairi’s response, however.

“ _You_!”

She pushed Sora aside and stared at the man with a quivering finger pointed at him, but she seemed more angry than afraid. “It’s you! _You_ were the one who took Safu, you… What did you do to her, to all of those people?! How _dare_ you, you – you _monster_!”

Scratch that, Sora didn’t think he’d ever seen her this angry before period, and that was counting the times they’d accidentally left her behind on the islands.

“Kairi, who is…”

“Ah, it’s the key girl,” the man in the lab coat now said, still grinning but his steps unsure. Was he afraid of Kairi or something else? Sora wouldn’t blame him for the former. “Who would have thought we would meet again? And that you would be so kind as to provide me with your friends as well? So very thoughtful of you. Maybe this will provide us with enough samples to continue _that_ particular research project. Yes, very interesting.”

“What are you talking about?” Riku now spoke up, Way to the Dawn ready. “We’re not your samples, and if you hurt our friends…”

“We will hurt _you_ ,” Sora shouted, which was perhaps not the coolest way to finish that sentence but certainly the most heart-felt one. He had no idea what this man had done, but if it was enough to get Kairi this upset, it couldn’t be good at all.

“I wish you the very best of luck with that.” The man grinned and snapped his fingers, looking over at his companion who had just been watching the exchange with surprise.

Kairi rushed forward, but she never made it to the man in the lab coat. A shadow had appeared on the floor in front of them and it quickly rose to huge proportions, towering over them and scratching the ceiling.

“A Heartless,” Sora realized, “He can control the Heartless!”

“Too bad for him that we know exactly how to beat them.” Riku sounded more determined than anything, catching Sora’s look and nodding. “Let’s get this thing.”

They hadn’t gone on many missions together, but thanks to their training, they’d become a well-coordinated team. Sora went for the direct assault as Riku covered for him and got some hits in, whereas Kairi had replenished her magic and fired off her spells in rapid succession.

 The Heartless didn’t stand a chance.

Riku threw Sora a final potion before he took his leap and finished off the Heartless giant with one swift strike of the Kingdom Key, which dissolved the monster into black smoke and freed the way to the two men in the room, both seeming rather stunned that the fight had ended that quickly.

“How did you…”

“Take _that_!”

Before Sora even had the chance to react or even process what was going on, Kairi had leapt forward and struck the man in the lab coat with Destiny’s Embrace, hard enough to bring him down to his knees and send him wheezing in pain.

_Wow. He must really be a bad guy if Kairi’s that angry with him, huh._

 “I won’t forgive you,” Kairi said, her voice cold. “I know what you did to Safu, to all of those people, you complete _monster_! They didn’t deserve that, _she_ didn’t!”

She raised her keyblade again, but something stopped her in her tracks.

The man was laughing. Cackling, even, as if someone had made a great joke. Sora failed to see the humor.

“I guess we’re about to see my research coming to full fruition,” he huffed out, still clutching his sides in pain.

Riku stumbled back at that. “Darkness,” he said, “he smells completely of darkness. Kairi, get back, that Heartless just now was only the beginning! He’s turning into one himself!”

“He’s _not_ getting away with this!”

“ _Kairi_!” Sora rushed forward and seized Kairi by her arm, trying to pull her back and out of the direct path of the lab coat man. Black smoke was starting to rise around him.

“Sora, let _go_ of me, he…”

But before Kairi could finish her sentence, all of their attention was directed towards the man. He’d gotten up all self-confident, but something was making him sway now. He staggered backwards, towards the other man and a big leather sofa that stood beside him. The smoke halted in mid-air, as if something was stopping his complete fall into darkness.

“What… is…”

The sound broke the sudden silence as a small, white object fell on the floor.

_A… tooth?_

The man in the lab coat was just as surprised to see it, and stretched his hands in front of his eyes with sudden horror. Even from a distance, Sora could see something was very definitely wrong with the skin. “No, it… it can’t be… It can’t be!”

He stumbled backwards, still staring at his hands in both horror and surprise, then tripped over his own feet and fell onto the sofa. Dark splotches were starting to form on his arms. His body twitched a couple of times, and then…

It was over.

The smoke evaporated, the man had stopped moving and was leaning back motionlessly with his mouth still open. Another tooth fell out and dropped on the floor, the only sound in the room for several long, long seconds.

Sora could only state the obvious. “Did… Did he just…”

A knock on the door behind them interrupted him thankfully before he could speak the final dreaded word.

The last man standing in the room took a step away from the sofa and spoke into a device right next to the writing desk on the wall, sounding eerily calm. “Come in.”

The door slid open as it was supposed to in normal situations, Sora assumed, considering the people behind it didn’t attempt to charge in as he had earlier.

Hang on – he _knew_ these people!

“Shion! Nezumi! Oh, and Inukashi? And…”

Nezumi just shook his head, and Sora fell silent as they all looked at the man in the sofa. Another tooth fell out at that moment, and Sora felt cold shivers as he noticed how his hair had turned white all of a sudden. 

“Oh…” It was the other man in the room, who was now staring at something in the man’s neck. Was that – a bee? Had that seriously just crawled out of him? Ew.

_This keeps getting creepier by the second._

“It’s a newborn,” the man whispered. “I had no idea it was inside him – but I don’t think he knew, either. He died before he got over his surprise, believing everything in the world could be explained by science.”

Shion and Nezumi stepped forward, and only now Sora saw just how messed up the both of them were. Shion’s white shirt was stained and he could spot a bandage popping up from underneath Nezumi’s jacket; Sora didn’t really dare to ask. At least Inukashi and the tall man (wait, wasn’t that Rikiga? He’d seen him before) seemed to be doing relatively okay by comparison.

Sora felt incredibly excluded as his two new friends spoke to the other man in the room.

“Mayor, please open the window. We’re going to use your balcony.”

“What do you intend to do?”

“To speak with Elyurias. We need to meet her, urgently.”

“You know about Elyurias?”

“Yes.”

Shion finally seemed to sense Sora’s confusion as he caught his look, offering him a weak smile. “Later,” he softly said. “It’s a long story.”

“But you guys are okay, right?”

Shion didn’t respond to that, but Sora took it he was distracted in the first place as the man – the Mayor? – had pushed a button on his desk, which caused the window to open.

“Nezumi.”

“Yeah.”

Nezumi stepped forward onto the balcony then, Shion following closely after. They were a team, a very close one. Sora had no idea who this Elyurias was or why they needed to be on the balcony, but this was their world, they knew what they were doing.

He was just about to turn to Inukashi to ask what had happened when he heard singing. The voice was almost otherworldly, stunning Sora and silencing the world around them. He couldn’t even hear the noise of the crowd below, which had become audible with the opening of the window.

 _Wow_.

“Nezumi,” Inukashi muttered, and yeah, it did kind of sound like Nezumi’s voice. Sora had no idea he could sing that well, though.

Next to him, Riku and Kairi had stifled too, but only Kairi was staring with widened eyes as if she saw or heard something neither of them could.

“Sa… fu?” Sora could hear her whisper. She then shook her head. “No, but… Oh. _Oh._ It’s – is that Elyurias, then? Is that what it was?”

Man, everyone was speaking in riddles today. “What are you talking about, Kairi?”

Instead of answering his question, Kairi pointed out towards the balcony.

Something had appeared out there, a blinding light and in the middle was – another bee? A huge one, if that was the case. Sora squinted to make it out clearly, but it did indeed look like a giant insect. And it looked like Nezumi was trying to talk to it, too.

Well, considering Sora had had talks with doorknobs and computer programs before, maybe he shouldn’t judge.

He held his breath as he noticed everyone else around him was waiting for something, the outcome of whatever was going on out there. Sora wasn’t particularly good at waiting out instead of acting, but from the little he understood of what was going on here, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do much, anyway.

He very pointedly did not look at the man on the sofa, though.

Sora couldn’t make out what Nezumi and Shion were saying, but at one point, Kairi gasped as if she did. Moments after, the light outside disappeared.

Whatever it was, it had passed.

 

Shion and Nezumi came back from the balcony, Shion promptly sinking to his knees on the carpet.

“It’s finally over,” he said, sounding a little breathless.

“Over? It’s only just begun, Shion. Your battle has just started, and it’s going to be arduous.”

“Nezumi…”

“Hey!” Sora wasn’t sure what was going on, but he didn’t like the whole ‘battle’ thing that Nezumi was insisting on here. “It _is_ over, isn’t it? That giant bee, whatever, it’s gone now, and the guy who summoned the Heartless is done for, so really, there’s nothing else to…” Nezumi glared at him then, so icy that Sora felt like he’d been hit with a blizzard spell for a second. “Eh.”

Kairi stepped forward now, studying Shion curiously. “So you’re Shion, then?”

“Ah – yes. And you’re…”

“Kairi.”

“Ah.” Shion smiled weakly at her. “I suppose we need to talk. All of us.” He nodded at Sora and Riku, too. “Just… not now, nor here.” He seemed to have recovered enough to scramble back to his feet now, sticking close to Nezumi’s side.

Nezumi was just looking at him for a moment, stare unwavering but unreadable. “We should go,” he said, “there’s a city to rebuild, you’re not finished here. Instead…” His eyes travelled to the man in the room, the one they’d called Mayor.

“I know.” The man sank down into his chair and closed his eyes. “I would like to be alone now.”

Rikiga, who had been pretty silent so far, now growled. “Gonna think about what to do with yourself, Mayor?”

“It has already been decided. So, please.”

“Let’s go now, then,” Nezumi said, walking to the open door. “Any last wishes should be respected.”

Sora raised his eyebrow. “Last wishes? What…”

“Let’s just go, Sora.” Riku seized him by the arm and dragged him out of the room, quickly followed by Kairi and the rest of the group.

Sora didn’t get the rush, though he did catch the noise that resounded inside the room the second the door closed behind them.

Riku flinched and tightened his grip on his arm as they left the upper floor of the Moondrop behind them.

 

*

 

Technically Inukashi had offered them a stay at the dog hotel for what was left of the night, but it seemed like Inukashi and Rikiga had gone through quite enough themselves that day (Riku was sure he was missing one dog that had been by Inukashi’s side a lot before, for one). Besides, they had a lot to talk about among the three of them.

Sora had cast a small fire spell on some dried woods at the hotel’s square, so they could huddle around it and pretend it was a camping trip. Although last time they’d done this at the islands, Sora had been telling the ghost stories he’d learnt in Halloween Town – he thankfully refrained from those now. They’d seen enough horror for the night.

“So that guy in the lab coat was behind the Heartless,” Sora slowly started, “I suppose that means our mission here is done, huh? I haven’t seen any Heartless since then, either. But what else was he doing?”

“Experiments.” Kairi was talking to her knees, which she had pulled up and was leaning against. “On… on people. This city really wasn’t perfect.”

“But the walls have come down now,” Riku added. Though they hadn’t had the chance to talk to the others yet, that was one detail he’d gathered from Inukashi before they’d made it back to the hotel. “Things might get better now, also with that guy and the Mayor – out of the picture.” He glanced down at Sora, instinctively feeling he had to protect him from the worst things this world had to offer. He could take it, he knew that, yet still…

 “Yeah. I’m sure Shion and Nezumi would do a better job at building a city.”

“They’re our age,” Riku countered.

Sora just shrugged. “So? We’ve saved plenty of worlds. But those two come from different parts of the city, right? They’ve seen both sides, they know how to do better than what it was.”

Heh. That was surprisingly insightful. Somehow, though, Riku had his doubts about Nezumi. Not that the guy wasn’t trustworthy, but after all was said and done, Riku just… had a feeling about him. With his ‘you’re not finished here’ to Shion, Nezumi had sounded suspiciously like he wasn’t planning on having much to do with it. Riku hoped he was wrong.

Kairi still hadn’t said much, just shifted a little at Sora’s argument. She hadn’t really elaborated on what had happened to her inside the Facility, but considering what she’d said earlier and her general state, it couldn’t have been easy by a long shot.

She’d discarded of the green shirt she’d worn, back to her own pink outfit now, and played with the keychain Sora had returned to her earlier.

“Kairi, are you okay?” Sora asked, shifting a little closer to her.

“I gave this to Safu inside the Facility,” she said, heaving a deep sigh. “For luck. I never really wanted it back.”

“Safu is…”

“Not coming back.” Kairi shook her head and hid herself again against her knees. “I know. That glowing thing outside earlier, Elyurias… I think it was inside the Facility, I sensed it before. Not exactly light or darkness.”

 “Something natural,” Riku offered. He’d sensed it too – or rather, the absence of darkness or light he’d been expecting with  creature that big and mysterious.

Kairi nodded. “Something like that indeed. It – showed me things about Safu, what happened to her. So I should know better, yet I still thought I sensed Safu there too for a second, the strength of her heart, but…” She held out the keychain. “She’s not coming back after all.”

Riku reached out to put his hand on her shoulder at the same time Sora did on her other side, both of them giving her a soft squeeze. “Kairi, if you need to talk…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” She sighed once more. “I didn’t know her for that long, really. I met more people in there, people who were suffering and who never got out either. It’s just… I feel like we could have become good friends, you know?  And she was looking for Shion so desperately, I really believed I could help her find him. I _promised_ her. And I promised those people, too, that I’d get them out…”

“You did your best, Kairi,” Sora immediately said, “you did all you could. We saw you come out of that building, we know you gave it your all.”

“I guess sometimes that’s just not enough.” Kairi clenched her fist around the keychain, and Riku wondered if she and him were thinking the same thing – _we have another fight coming. A big one. What if our best is not enough then, either?_

As they were all huddled close together, it wasn’t difficult to miss Kairi quickly rubbing her eyes with her free wrist. When she looked up again, however, her eyes were dry. “You still haven’t filled me in,” she said, “what have you guys been doing in the mean while?”

“Oh!” Sora’s face lit up immediately at that. “I got to wash puppies right here! How cool is that?! I mean, it’s really Shion’s job, but I helped him out!”

For the first time since they’d come to this world, Riku saw Kairi crack a genuine, wide smile before busted into laughter. “Of course you did,” she brought out, having to lean on his shoulder to keep sitting upright.

Sora went on to talk in length about how many puppies he’d washed and what they looked like and that surely they’d love to meet Kairi too, since they were already at the hotel now anyway.

Riku snorted and leaned in anyway, despite having been there himself to see the dog washing.

They’d be okay, he figured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jerk in the Lab Coat is such a Jerk he totally deserves to die twice, okay. First by his heart being overtaken by darkness, second death by bee. NO MERCY FOR THE JERK IN THE LAB COAT.
> 
> Well that was a barrel of fun! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ  
> Meet you in the epilogue!


	8. Epilogue. Karan's Bakery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle is over - or has it only just begun for everyone?  
> Alternatively: some final talks over cherry cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is it! Thanks for sticking with this story until the very end.  
> It got way more serious than I had originally intended (see: royal mouse puns vs. the Correctional Facility business), but it was good practice in many things I hadn't really tried writing before. I learnt a lot and I hope it was enjoyable to read so far, despite the turns it took.
> 
> Well, without further ado, the epilogue!

“Thank you so much, Ms. Karan!”

Sora at least had the decency to show gratitude for getting a second, rather generous helping of cherry cake, Riku noted with a fond smirk.

From all his chats with Shion, Sora had at least remembered his mother lived in a part of the city called Lost Town and that she ran a bakery. It was easy enough to find the place then, and as they had hoped, Shion and Nezumi were there, too. They just hadn’t met them yet: understandably, the two were worn out and were still resting despite it being late in the afternoon already.

Riku had been more than a little surprised when Shion’s mother had welcomed them into the store and guided them to the room in the back like they were already friends, but then she’d taken a quick look at Sora’s hair and said how Shion had vouched for them before.

Sora had insisted they waited for Shion and Nezumi here, next to the bakery, and it soon became apparent why.

Shion’s mother was thankfully very generous and didn’t even want to accept any payment for her goods, though she did gladly accept help in the kitchen. For a while, anyway, because it turned out Sora’s skills were more honed for consumption rather than production. He made appreciative noises as he ate and shot Riku at least five wide grins over the course of as many minutes. Riku was frankly at a loss as for what he was trying to convey there, but he most certainly wasn’t complaining over an unabashedly happy Sora.

Kairi had regained an appetite and was nibbling on a muffin, while Riku shoved his empty plate aside and kindly refused a second helping. He wasn’t that big on sweets, although even he had to admit Karan’s baking was delectable. One slice of cake was plenty, though.

 

Kairi had just put away her muffin wrapper and Sora was finishing the last bits on his plate when Shion and Nezumi entered the room, Shion yawning behind his hand and Nezumi ruffling his own, untied hair. Shion’s hair was still a bit damp from a shower, which had at least gotten most of the red stains out. Neither of them wore the bloodied clothes Riku had seen them in last either, though Nezumi still wore a bandage around his torso from what he could spot.

He really started to wonder how Kairi had even managed to make it out of the Facility in one piece, never mind with as few serious injuries as she had.

Sora in the mean while had abandoned his plate and looked up with a grin. “Shion, Nezumi!”

 “Oh – hi,” Shion said with a sheepish smile, hiding yet another yawn. “Good – afternoon?” He eyed the clock over Sora’s head and appeared to do a double-take. “Geesh, really?”

“I’d better go close up the shop for today,” Karan announced, ruffling her son’s hair for a bit as she passed him.

Sora just grinned. “It’s been a long day and night, huh.”

“You could say that again.” Shion took the chair next to Sora, gently tugging Nezumi’s arm until he sat down between him and Riku.

“To what or whom do we owe the dubious honor of welcoming Spike and his friends here, exactly?” Nezumi had folded his arms over his chest and gave Sora in particular a proper scowl.

“Oh, right. We’re actually here to say goodbye,” Sora said, which for some reason caused Shion’s face to fall.

Nezumi just scoffed. “Good.”

“ _Nezumi_.”

“What? They’re just – hey! Shion, did you just _kick_ me.”

Shion patently ignored Nezumi’s accusing glare and looked at Sora instead. “You’re leaving, then?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, we found our friend!” Sora cheerfully seized Kairi’s shoulder to emphasize his point.

“And we have missions to fulfill elsewhere,” Riku cut in, before Sora caught up with himself and figured that hey, maybe they didn’t have to leave that soon after all. They’d spent enough time on this world as it was already, and now that the Heartless both in and outside of the city had disappeared with the man in the lab coat, their mission here was over.

Sora beamed. “Yup. But we didn’t want to leave without catching up with our friends!”

“Or without stuffing your face with Shion’s mama’s baking.” Nezumi casually leaned aside to avoid Shion kicking him under the table again in retaliation. “I’m just telling it as it is.”

“It is _very_ good,” Sora just said. “But hey, how are you guys doing now?”

“Just peachy, clearly.” Nezumi groaned and tugged aside his shirt a little, revealing the bandage for Sora to see now, too. “Getting shot will do that to you.”

“ _What?_ ”

“Long story.” Nezumi shrugged. “Made it into the Facility, destroyed the central computer, made it out. And now we’re here.”

“But you _got shot_ ,” Sora repeated, sounding a little breathless and shocked. “See, I _knew_ we should have gone with you guys!”

“Sora, don’t.” Riku pulled him back into his seat. “You don’t dodge bullets with keyblades for starters.”

“Reflect magic works! I tried that!”

“Only if you know it’s coming.”

“Hmph,” was Sora’s response, but he sank back anyway.

“Shion.” It was the first time Kairi spoke up since the two boys had joined them, and she was looking straight at him as she said his name. “You’re Safu’s friend, aren’t you?”

The name made him flinch, but he nodded anyway. “I am. And you’re Kairi, aren’t you? You met her in the Facility?”

Kairi’s eyes widened with surprise. “I don’t think I told you that,” she slowly said, “how…”

“Elyurias.” Shion shook his head. “No, Safu herself. That was Safu, I’m sure of it. She told us many things, but also how she was grateful to you.”

Riku didn’t miss Nezumi’s glance at his friend, softened now and almost sympathetic.

“Elyurias.” Kairi repeated the name. “That was the giant bee we saw, right?”

“Ah.” Shion stole a glance at Nezumi before answering. “Yes.”

It was silent for a while as Kairi fidgeted, then reached for something in her bag. “There’s something I’d like you to have,” she then said, “I actually gave it to Safu, but it made its way back to me. I guess the shape is a little… strange, given recent events, but it brings luck to friends.”

She took Shion’s hand now and pressed something in it. As Shion opened his fingers, the rest of them could also steal a glance at the object: it was the keychain Sora had once given Kairi, the one for the Sweet Memories keyblade. A bee.

When Riku looked at Sora next to him, all he could see was a fond smile – maybe Kairi had already told him about her plan.

Shion in the mean while was staring at the item in disbelief. “You… gave this to Safu? It was hers?”

“For a while, yes.”

“I…” He swallowed heavily. “Thank you. I’ll… I’ll treasure it, for sure.”

Kairi smiled. “I’m glad. She really wanted to see you, and it sounds like she might have in the end.”

And at that, Shion got up abruptly. “Please excuse me for a moment.”

 

Nezumi had stared down everyone at the table for roughly a minute and then followed Shion upstairs. They returned together only a couple of minutes later, a fragile smile on Shion’s face and Nezumi hovering behind him, his hand almost but not quite touching the small of Shion’s back. With a quiet ‘sorry about that’, Shion settled back into his seat.

The mood lightened very rapidly after that as Sora overloaded Shion with compliments over his mother’s baking, and rattled off questions about helping in the bakery and living in this cozy place. Riku had no idea if he was doing it on purpose or if Sora was just being Sora, but Shion’s smile soon became brighter and more earnest as a result and after a while, genuine laughter resounded in the room.

Riku only realized he must have been staring at Sora with a rather damning look on his face when he caught Nezumi giving him a sly grin that spoke volumes. Not like he was one to talk, anyway.

Shion’s mother appeared to have an unerring sense of atmosphere and only re-entered the backroom when the mood had very definitely shifted into something more upbeat. She seemed to be very fond of Nezumi, despite Riku knowing almost for sure that the two hadn’t ever met until very recently, considering his talks with Nezumi.

Maybe that was just the kind of person she was, however, since she quickly took a shine to Sora as well. Then again, that could easily just be because he was Sora. It really was difficult not to smile around him.

 

“Say hi to the puppies from me, okay?” Sora told Shion as they shook hands once more. “I didn’t get to see them all at the hotel anymore this morning. And tell Inukashi I said hi again and that I’m always available for puppy washing.”

“Will do,” Shion said, returning his smile whole-heartedly. “Do come by when you’re in the neighborhood, okay?”

“Of course! We’re friends now!”

Riku had just finished politely exchanging goodbyes with Nezumi, and snorted when the latter backed away now that Sora was done saying goodbye to his friend and had targeted him next.

“You too, Nezumi! Say hi to the mice, and play nice with Shion!”

Riku coughed. “Sora…”

“No, I’m serious. You’re great friends just like Riku and me, you really shouldn’t fight or lose sight of each other.” Sora almost sounded like he was scolding Nezumi of all people, and Riku just gave up trying to hold him back. He was grinning again now, anyway. “See you around!”

Kairi gave Shion a hesitant look now, stretched out a hand before Shion stepped forward and pulled her into the quick hug she had been going for. “Thank you, Kairi,” Riku caught him saying, “for being a friend to Safu when I couldn’t be.”

“We won’t forget her, Shion. None of us will.” She gave his hand a last, firm squeeze before letting go definitely.

“Do I even want to know how you plan on leaving this place,” Nezumi said, not even bothering to make it sound like a question.

“It’s a secret,” Sora quipped, “just like the keyblades or the Heartl- oops. Eh. Never mind.”

“Remind me to never entrust you with any secrets,” Nezumi replied.

Shion just grinned and gently shoved him. “Goodbye, Sora, Riku, Kairi. Safe trip!”

Three hands were raised into the air. “Goodbye!”

 

 Evening had already fallen as they made their way to a clear spot in the nearby forest, someplace they could easily summon their keyblade armor and leave relatively inconspicuously. Halfway through their walk, Sora had seized both of his friends’ hands and dragged them along, cheerful as always. They could almost pretend no buildings had been blown up, that no innocent people had gotten caught up in it all.

“I wonder how many free meals Ms. Karan gave us with those cakes,” Sora mused, squeezing Riku’s hand and probably Kairi’s, too.

 “Knowing you? Maybe enough for half a day, tops,” Riku said, outright laughing when he saw the hurt look on Sora’s face in return.

Kairi was chuckling, too. “Don’t forget to share with us, Sora. So you might just have enough for a quick snack with the oh, five cakes she gave you?”

“Hey!”

“Calm down before you destroy them,” Riku pointed out, as the two bags Sora was carrying were swaying dangerously in his swinging his friends’ hands. “We still want our shares, you know.”

“You guys are terrible!” Sora was pouting for a whole half second before he started laughing, too. “Let’s get home.”

Yes, home. Back to the Islands for as long as they could stay, before they needed to head off for training or more missions. Riku still wondered if they were going to be okay after all they’d seen in this world.

But then again, they wouldn’t be alone in this. They had friends and allies to count on, had formed strong teams that had come to work together seamlessly. _They_ were a team. So maybe, just maybe, things would work out fine.

Riku just hoped the same would go for the world of No. 6, too, now in more capable hands.

  


#  END OF PART 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler: yeah, Nezumi still leaves after this. Sorry.
> 
>  
> 
> Part 2 will definitely come! It will take place post-canon for both series, several years in No. 6's case at least (haven't yet decided if I'll go with the 'time flows differently on different worlds' theory for Kingdom Hearts. Is that even a theory? Help). Will reunion come????  
> ... Oh come on, what do you think. Part 2 will even have (spoiler!) smooches! GASP!
> 
> I would love to promise you a specific date, but I can at least promise it won't take another two years since I have more freedom with it, being post-canon. And also I worked out quite some scenes already. Definitely more light-hearted than this part, I can promise you that much.  
> If you're interested, find me on tumblr (also listenforthelove) and keep an eye on my [#the number is six](http://listenforthelove.tumblr.com/tagged/the%20number%20is%20six) tag for updates, since I'll probably keep whining about the process there too, ahem.
> 
> If you read this far, thank you so very much!! I hope you enjoyed this ride, it sure was an adventure writing it.


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